Former Sikh Cemetery - Municipal Heritage Inventory - City of Canning Parkwood, Western Australia, Australia
By jinta29 on 22-Jan-18. Waypoint GA11867

Please post a photo of the plaque in your log to claim this cache

DESCRIPTION  
 
Fmr Sikh Cemetery is a small area of 0.2 hectares, formally a ‘C’ class reserve within the Bicentennial Adenia Reserve, located in Ferndale. The present public open space was modified as part of the redevelopment of the area in the late 1980s, as a result of minor earthworks and tree planting.

A group of rocks record the site upon which a plaque is mounted. The stones are located approximately 62 metres within the park to the north-west of the Duff and Adenia Road intersection. The bronze plaque reads as follows:

‘Sikh Heritage Cremation Site – Adenia Recreation Reserve – In memory of the Sikh Pioneers who contributed towards the opening up and development of the south west, central and eastern goldfields regions of Western Australia.   Sikh Association of WA Canning City Council Canning Districts Historical Society – 2nd November 1992. 

Plaque donated by Hazel and John Parker C.D.H.S stone donated by Readymic Gosnells Quarry.’ 

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

 Sikhs are known to have arrived in Western Australia in the early 19th century although it is probable that a greater number of them arrived during the second half of the century. Shiploads of camels were brought to Australia in the 1860s and, although their handlers were known as ‘Afghans’, there were Sikhs among them.

Many early Sikh settlers worked as camel handlers, while others travelled around WA selling wares. The annulment of the White Australia Policy in 1973 saw increased opportunities for Sikh migration with Sikhs coming to Western Australia from India, the United Kingdom, east Africa, Singapore, Malaysia and Fiji.

In Sikhism cremation is the usual method for disposal of remains regardless of the age of the deceased. A small C Class reserve occupying 0.2ha (0.5acres), was gazetted in 1932 as Reserve 20968 for the purpose of a Sikh cemetery after a dying Sikh man immolated himself, fearing that he would be buried. At the time the area was isolated and largely undeveloped with few residents living in the vicinity. 

An article in the Mirror provides detail of a cremation at the subject place in June 1934. The article reports that a big pyre was built with banksia logs to cremate a deceased Sikh man and that three days after the cremation the mourners would return to the burial ground to collect every particle of ash to throw into the Canning River. 

By 1898, the Sikh community was well established, although lacking recognition, both as a separate ethnic community, and as British citizens. The reserve was vested in two members of the Sikh community, Bulla and Massa Singh. In 1971, the Sikh community sought to have the vesting altered as neither Bulla or Massa were alive. They also sought to have the size of the reserve extended. 

The reserve was cancelled in 1977 and reverted to public open space. Landscaping and earthworks took place over the site in the late 1980s, when the Canning Regional Park was developed. In 2011, a plaque at the Sikh Cemetery in Ferndale was placed in-situ.