Pig Oven, Bathurst

A pig oven can be seen in the background of a group photograph taken circa 1947 in the backyard of the Chinese Masonic Lodge on the corner of Durham and Rankin Streets in Bathurst. A rectangular brick construction in the background of the photo has a round lid at the top which would fit a cylindrical oven, and an aperture at the bottom suited for raking out ashes. There is an oral history account of pork being cooked and consumed on the occasion of the funeral of market gardener and Lodge member Charles Yow Senior, who died in 1927. Nell O’Rourke, born 1919, told me:

I remember going to Charles Senior’s funeral. Lummie used to cook the pork, he used to have this cart. It used to be so clean. Pork would go up in the cart – drive it up to the cemetery. We’d wait till everyone got out, till it was over. Afterwards we went down to the Lodge – meat was cut up and portioned. You would love to eat it; it was so delicious...

Juanita Kwok, A reassessment of Chinese pig ovens in Australia, Journal of Australasian Mining History, Vol. 21, October 2023, p.107.