Guyetts and Sons is a family business that began providing funeral services in Warrnambool and South West Victoria in 1905. Today in 2019 the business is still in operation as Guyetts Funerals Warrnambool. At the graveside, coffin rods are laid across the width of the open grave to support the coffin. The coffin is balanced evenly on the coffin rods. Coffin straps (also called lifting straps) are slipped underneath the coffin from side to side and at the appropriate time the straps are used to lift the coffin, the rods are removed and, using the straps the coffin is gently lowered into the grave.These coffin rods are significant for their association with Guaetts Funerals Warrnambool, an early 1900s local family business that is still in operation. The rods are an example of equipment used in conducting funerals and burials for many years.Coffin straps; two woven canvas straps, ends re-inforced with leather (sometimes called funeral straps). Straps once elonged to Guyetts and Sons, Warrnambool.flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, coffin straps, funeral straps, guyatt's funerals warrnambool, burial service, cemetery, graveside, coffin, canvas ropes, guyett funeral directors warrnambool, warrnambool 1920s, warrnambool 1905 business, funeral item, funeral service, funeral director warrnambool, funeral home, funeral arrangements, burial service, cemetery funeral, death, herse, cemetery supplies, funeral director supplies, mortuary equipment

This wagon was used in towns across south-west Victoria during the first half of the twentieth century by Pooran Singh, an Indian-born immigrant. Singh arrived in Australia alone in 1899 at the age of 30. The following year, at the Colac Licensing Court in western Victoria, he was one of 78 hawkers granted a Hawker’s Licence. According to the Colac Herald, all but two of the applicants appeared to be Asian. While some hawkers registered horse-drawn carts, Singh was one of nineteen licensed to trade on foot, selling door to door. Applicants were encouraged to contribute to a collection for the Colac Hospital. Over time, Pooran Singh came to own his own wagon—a top-of-the-range light delivery vehicle—and a horse named Prince. His work often took him along rough country roads, and for a period, he worked in the Corryong district of north-eastern Victoria, an area popular with hawkers. In September 1909, near Thowgla, he was thrown from his wagon while attempting to navigate a deep rut and was run over by one of its wheels. Although he suffered bruising to his chest, his injuries were not serious. The following year, he was granted a Hawker’s Licence in Corryong. By 1916, Singh was living and working at Garvoc in western Victoria, where that year, he lost his paper licence on Cooramook Road, and he placed a notice in The Standard. In 1918, at the Warrnambool Petty Sessions Court, he was one of four applicants granted renewal of their hawkers’ licences, and each donated ten shillings to Warrnambool Hospital. Throughout these years, Singh became well known to farmers and their families as he travelled across Victoria’s Western District, living and working from his covered wagon. In his later years, Pooran Singh formed a close friendship with John Jandes Moore and his wife, Vera, of Russells Creek, Warrnambool. They offered him the use of their property as a base for his travels and cared for him during his final illness. John Moore was later appointed one of the two executors of Singh’s will. Pooran Singh died in Warrnambool on 8 June 1947, aged 77. His final wish was to be cremated and for his ashes to be returned to India for immersion in the Ganges. The cremation was arranged by Guyett’s Funerals in Warrnambool. Having never married, Singh left his estate to his four nephews, enabling them to buy land and build homes; one later installed a memorial plaque in his honour. In the late 1980s, Guyett’s Funerals placed his ashes in the niche wall at Warrnambool Cemetery as a memorial, while continuing to hope that family instructions might eventually arrive. Nearly 63 years after his death, renewed enquiries brought public attention to the long and respectful care given to his ashes. As a result, the renowned Indian cricketer Kapil Dev travelled to Warrnambool to collect them and escort them to India, helping to fulfil Singh’s final wish. He was joined by one of Singh’s grand-nephews, Harmel Uppal, who had travelled from England. At a formal ceremony on 25 July 2010 commemorating Singh’s life, the ashes were handed to Dev and Uppal, and local resident Avis Quarrell, who had known Singh as a child, read a poem she had written in his memory. She still owned a shell necklace that Singh had made for her mother. Some Warrnambool locals who had been closely involved also travelled to India, where they joined Uppal’s family from the village of Uppal Bhopa, near Jalandhar. On 31 July 2010, Pooran Singh’s ashes were immersed in the Ganges, fulfilling the wish he had expressed more than six decades earlier. After Pooran Singh’s death, his horse and wagon remained on John Moore’s property. When Prince died, he was buried on the beach at Warrnambool. The wagon remained with the Moore family and was occasionally used as a cubby house. In about 1997, John Moore, the son of John Jandes Moore, donated it to Flagstaff Hill. After restoration, the wagon became an attraction in the village, where volunteer Pat and his Clydesdale horse, Duke, offered visitors rides around Flagstaff Hill’s lake. This wagon is significant for its association with an Indian emigrant who used it to earn an income in Australia. It also reflects the vital role of hawkers, who travelled through rural and regional communities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, supplying food, goods and news. The wagon is also historically significant as a former Flagstaff Hill attraction, offering visitors the experience of horse-drawn rides around the lake.Wagon: a light delivery vehicle once used as a hawker's wagon. It is a four-wheel, horse-drawn vehicle with iron tyres, brakes, spoked wheels painted red with decorative yellow strips on the hubs, a timber shaft, and springs on the undercarriage. It was once a covered wagon, fitted with green, wooden sideboards, a front seat with leather-padded backrest and mounting steps. The late-19th to early-20th-century wagon was once owned by Pooran Singh, a local Indian hawker. flagstaff hill, warrnambool, maritime village, maritime museum, flagstaff hill maritime museum and village, shipwreck coast, great ocean road, southwest victoria, northwest victoria, western district, colac, colac hospital, colac licensing court, thowgla, corryong, garvoc, cooramook road, warrnambool petty sessions court, warrnambool hospital, russells creek road, ganges, warrnambool cemetery, uppal bhopa, jalandhar, hawker’s licence, covered wagon, wagon, hawker's wagon, horse-drawn cart, hawker's cart, light delivery vehicle, hawker, travelling salesman, travelling hawker, door-to-door sales, rural salesman, rural commerce, prince, duke, clydesdale horse, 1997, pooran singh, indian immigrant, pat, john james moore, vera moore, john and vera moore, john moore, guyatt’s funerals, kapil dev, harmel uppal, avis quarrell