Max Holland manages the "Tour de Canterbury Rotary" and provided this update of the recent adventures of the rotary bike group.
The week, the ride started from the Flinders Street station and went west along the north bank of the Yarra River, then north through Docklands to the bike path beside the Upfield railway line. We had excellent coffees at The Nicholson Coffee & Eatery in Brunswick, before heading further north to visit the Pioneer Section of the Fawkner Cemetery. We joined the Ring Road path a bit further north and headed east to Dalton Road, Thomastown, before heading southward along the Melbourne Water pipeline path to Reservoir. Lunch was again at the Reservoir RSL before the train trip home.
The Fawkner Memorial Park opened in 1906 as a "modern railway cemetery" with a train station within its boundaries used between 1906 and 1939 to transport funeral parties (the deceased's coffin travelled for free, provided it was accompanied by at least six mourners who purchased tickets). The Pioneer Section was created in 1923 to accommodate the remains and monuments of about 220 early settlers from the Old Melbourne Cemetery when that was repurposed for the Victoria Market. The photo shows the riders examining the special monumental obelisk over John Batman’s remains. A comprehensive video tour of the Pioneer Section is available at the following link.
