A family crypt containing the remains of some of Australia’s earliest settlers may soon be restored and put on the tourist map.
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Maitland City Council voted unanimously at a meeting this week to investigate the purchase of land and the funding of the restoration of the Dunmore Lang family crypt at Largs.
Mary Dunmore Lang was born in 1770 and she was the first interment.
- Cr Arch Humphery.
The family crypt, located opposite Dunmore House on Paterson Road, Largs is a significant part of Maitland’s history that many people are unaware of.
Cr Humphery said the family set up the area’s first flour mill on the Paterson River, which employed 350 people.
They also built historic Dunmore House, a landmark Hunter building which owners Paris and Mittie Osborne have restored.
Cr Humphery said the Osbornes had made a huge effort to restore the property and retain its heritage value. He said they hoped the tomb site could also be restored and saved.
The Osbornes are concerned that due to the recent sale of the property where the crypt is located the significant monument could be lost.
The crypt is the last resting place of Mary Dunmore Lang, mother of Dr John Dunmore Lang, the proprietor of Dunmore and a prominent clergyman in the early days of the colony.
He was the first Presbyterian minister in the colony and built Scots Church in Sydney. He was also a Member of Parliament and a great sponsor of immigration to the colony.
“This family made an unbelievable contribution to this area and this site deserves to have a rightful place in Maitland’s history,” Cr Humphery said.
Lang was granted the estate, which he called Dunmore – his mother’s maiden name – and ordered the construction of Dunmore House. When he died in 1825, the house was passed to his brother Andrew.
“These were prominent people and this is the way their remains have been treated. Mary Dunmore Lang was born in 1770 and she was the first interment.”
He told councillors that the crypt was now covered with seven sheets or rusty iron.
He said on the other side of the road was a well built by convicts, which was the first water supply for the family.
The well and an adjacent windmill had been bulldozed and filled in to make way for development on the site.
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