Queer Places:
Yackandandah Cemetery, Cemetery Lane, Yackandandah VIC 3749, Australia
John Robert Morrison (February 1835 - April 15, 1914) was a resident of Yackandandah, Victoria, whose life became a significant historical case study illustrating the harsh enforcement of colonial-era laws against same-sex relationships in Australia. His story is preserved in the project A History of LGBTIQ+ Victoria in 100 Places and Objects as a testament to the lives impacted by the criminalization of homosexuality before its decriminalization in Victoria in 1981.
Morrison was a native of Iliniskillan, Ireland, and was born in February, 1835. He arrived in Australia in 1855, and followed the Ballarat and Creswick gold rushes, eventually settled at Yackandandah.
In July 1870, Morrison was arrested at his home in Yackandandah on charges of "buggery"—a legal term used at the time to criminalize same-sex sexual activity—involving a man named George Groves.
The case was heard in the Supreme Court in the nearby town of Beechworth. Initially, both men were charged, but the legal system successfully pressured Groves to testify against Morrison.
The Chief Justice imposed a severe sentence, which included 10 years of hard labor to be served at Pentridge Gaol, alongside a corporal punishment of three floggings of 50 lashes each with a cat-o’-nine-tails.
The brutality of his punishment was documented in detail by the Argus newspaper in Melbourne, providing a grim reflection of the era's penal practices regarding "crimes against nature."
After completing his sentence, Morrison returned to Yackandandah. He lived there for another 44 years, largely out of the public eye, until his death on April 15, 1914.
Today, his grave in the Yackandandah cemetery is considered a site of historical importance. While it is described as "unremarkable" and weathered by time, it serves as an enduring memorial to the individuals whose personal lives were shattered by Victorian-era legal codes. The inclusion of his grave in A History of LGBTIQ+ Victoria in 100 Places and Objects ensures that his experience remains part of the collective memory of the struggles faced by queer individuals in Australia's colonial past.
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