johnhislop

Horsedrawn hearse built by John Hislop in Brisbane ca 1916

from State Library of Queensland

• Vesna Verencevic said:

  Early undertakers relied on horse-drawn transport, and a surviving remnant of those days are the concrete troughs that can be found in a quiet part of the cemetery. These were originally used for holding food and drink for the horses that pulled the hearses, as well as the carts of other visitors to the cemetery. An electric tramline was laid along Gladstone Road in the 1900s, allowing people to use trams for funeral processions for the first time. Special hearse trams were used, in which the coffin was placed at the front of the tram behind the driver, and the mourners were seated in the carriage behind. Coffins could also arrive by train at the Boggo Junction (later Dutton Park) station across the road. This usually happened when the deceased had died out of town and had to be brought into the family plot. Source: www.fosbc.com/history/cemetery-people/the-undertakers/