Sara FlowerPrint Page

The memorial over the grave commemorates Opera Singer and singing teacher. Sara Flower was buried in the Devonshire Street Cemetery and in 1902 her remains were removed and a memorial erected. 

Sara Elizabeth Flower (c. 1820 – 1865) was a British-born contralto singer who became Australia's first opera star. After a successful career as a concert singer in London, Sara Flower took up the suggestion of the composer Stephen Marsh and came to Australia in 1850, making her concert début in Melbourne. Considered to be the most talented singer then to come to Australia, she was hailed by the Melbourne press as `the modern Sappho`, `the Queen of song` and `the Australian Nightingale`. Moving to Sydney, where the existence of an opera company performing on a regular basis offered more scope, Flower made her Australian opera début at the Royal Victoria Theatre, on 1 May 1851, as the heroine in an English adaptation of Rossini`s La Cenerentola. As a singing teacher, Flower advertised herself as a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and the principal musical societies of Milan.

At the instance of Mr. J. W. K. Clarke, the admirers of the late Mme. Sara. Elizabeth Flower recently subscribed a sufficient sum to provide for the erection of a monument to her memory in the new cemetery at La Perouse over the grave to which her remains were transferred from the Devonshire-street Cemetery. The monument has now been placed in position, bearing an appropriate inscription. 
Evening News (Sydney, NSW), 31 December 1903.

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