About The King of Melbourne forthcoming book
Colonial Melbourne's most striking and influential figure
115 years ago, Kew Cemetery in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs was bestowed with an extraordinary addition: a mausoleum of Egyptianizing architecture based on a well-known structure in Egypt called Trajan’s Kiosk.
It was built to inter the body of one of the city’s most prominent and well-known citizens, the owner of The Age newspaper David Syme, and later his wife Annabella.
David and Annabella Syme’s remains are in the mausoleum, but they were not joined by any of their nine children (two had already died in infancy).
Not long afterwards, the fascinating story of how the tomb came to be, and the prominence of the man it was built for, faded into history, with many details lost, and many hidden.
This new biography about David Syme is not only about the heritage listed tomb but the spiritual understandings of the man himself, told from the perspective of a researcher - artist who has engaged with the monument in paintings and public talks for almost a decade.
Apart from a survey of the monument itself and the incredible artisans like Walter Butler, Mabel Young, and stonemasons the Ballantine Brothers responsible for its creation, the book explores what David Syme thought about religion and the afterlife and how Ancient Egyptian religion and symbolism are reflected in the very mausoleum itself.
The book explores connections to early Australian Prime Minister and Federation draftsman Alfred Deakin, British Spiritualist Gerald Massey, Spiritualism & Theosophy, and a pioneering newspaper that set the template for mighty newspapers in Australia and worldwide.