By Cara Waters
In his Hampton home, Setken stands surrounded by two large obelisks, shelves filled with books on Egyptology and his own hieroglyphic paintings, as he prepares to tell the story behind the Egyptian mausoleum in Kew cemetery.
The imposing tomb in Melbourne’s east – with its tall columns, stone pythons and scarabs – was built for David Syme, the former owner and editor of The Age, in 1910.
Setken at his home in Hampton with his obelisks and hieroglyphic paintings. Credit: Simon Schluter
Looming over the plainer headstones in the Presbyterian section of the cemetery, the heritage-listed mausoleum is a miniature replica of Trajan’s Kiosk on Agilkia Island in the Nile in Egypt.
Setken, a mononymous artist, is hosting the event A Monumental Egyptian Tomb in Melbourne as part of the Open House Melbourne weekend on July 26 and 27, and is keen to explain how this Egyptian mausoleum came to be built in suburban Melbourne.
He has been fascinated with Egypt since childhood and discovered the mausoleum several years ago, prompting his research into the man behind the tomb.
Setken believes Syme was an Egyptophile too.
He says Syme was one of the world’s first media tycoons and bought The Age with his brother, Ebenezer, when the newspaper was sinking. But under his leadership, it became “this mammoth, hugely influential newspaper of its day”.
“David Syme is probably one of the most significant personalities of colonial Melbourne,” he says.
David Syme’s mausoleum at Kew cemetery.
The second wave of Egyptomania did not sweep the world until the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. Syme’s mausoleum was built 12 years before that.
Setken believes Syme’s interest in Egypt was part of his greater interest in spirituality and the nature of the soul: he attended seances with his wife and was part of the Victorian Spiritualists’ Union.
“Mausoleums, to our 2025 mind, they’re a bit confronting,” Setken says. “We think, well, only someone with a really big ego would have a mausoleum, but that wasn’t the case in the day at all.”
In 1910, burial was still the main practice, and cremation did not come along until later, he says.
“Mausoleums were actually a big thing for wealthy people and it was a sign of status. David Syme did quite a few tours on steam liners going back and forth to London, and he would have known that.”
Setken speculates that Syme would have seen paintings of Trajan’s Kiosk, which inspired the mausoleum’s design.
Trajan’s Kiosk in Egypt.Credit: Ross Duncan
“Apart from looking at this as a spectacular piece of art – because it is – there is also a backstory to it that is curious, mysterious,” Setken says. “There are still things we don’t know about the tomb.”
For years, the details of the architects behind the tomb were lost; it only recently came to light that it was designed by Walter Richmond Butler and Royston Bradshaw and adorned with copper fittings crafted by artist Mabel Young.
Butler’s other significant buildings in Melbourne include the Mission to Seafarers building in Docklands and the gatehouse for Dame Nellie Melba’s estate at Coombe in the Yarra Valley.
“The mausoleum is important because it intersects across historical and cultural lines from Melbourne’s past,” Setken says. “Besides David Syme himself, you’ve got this extraordinarily popular architect who built this and his legacy nearly got eclipsed over this alone.”
Open House Melbourne runs from July 26 to 27.
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