The grave shared by George Percival Farrar and his mother, Matilda, tells a story of love, loss, and family resilience in colonial Victoria.
George died at the family home in Murray Street, Colac, on 17 June 1893. He was just five years old. His death attracted attention beyond Colac, with reports appearing in local and Melbourne newspapers, reflecting the sympathy felt for the Farrar family and the sadness surrounding the loss of such a young child.
For George's parents, however, this was not their first experience of heartbreak. Six years earlier they had lost another son, Herbert Farrar, who was born prematurely in Geelong in 1887. Herbert survived for only a single day and was buried at Geelong Eastern Cemetery. The loss of two young sons within such a short period was a burden familiar to many Victorian families of the nineteenth century, when childhood illness and infant mortality were ever-present realities.
George was buried in Colac Cemetery on 19 June 1893. His grave stood as a lasting reminder of a child whose life ended before it had truly begun.
In January 1907, George's mother, Matilda Carthew Farrar (nee Miners), died at the age of forty-four after suffering from cancer of the pancreas and related complications. She was laid to rest beside her son, reuniting mother and child in the same grave.
Today, their shared resting place speaks not only of personal grief but also of the experiences endured by countless families in nineteenth-century Australia. The Farrars faced the loss of two sons and, later, a wife and mother taken in middle age. Yet their story is also one of remembrance. More than a century later, the names of George and Matilda remain together in Colac Cemetery, a testament to enduring family bonds that outlasted tragedy.

Research by Sharyn Joce
Story by Sharyn Joce

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