IF you want a true reflection of the city’s social fabric during the past 150 years, take a walk through the Bendigo Cemetery.
Since the first burial of three-and-a-half year old Ellen Mowbray Murphy at what was then the Back Creek Burial Ground in 1858, the cemetery has become an evolving record of history.
“Culturally it’s very, very significant,” according to Bendigo Cemeteries Trust chief excecutive Bruce Macumber.
“It’s an imprint of what’s happened over time ... you can see all the different periods.
“There are a lot of children in early times because of disease.
“The monuments show the wealth or otherwise of people.”
The site, which has also been known as the Quarry Hill Cemetery, Carpenter Street Cemetery and the Sandhurst Public Cemetery, has 60,000 interments.
Graves of Bendigo pioneers are scattered among those of people who played important roles at local, state and national levels, and those who represented the diversity or everyday life of our city’s past.
Among the notable burials are Sir John Quick, George Lansell, Anne Caudle, Robert Ross Haverfield and Robert Burrowes.
Each is placed in a burial ground often described as a sophisticated example of cemetery planning, with a systematic design, winding paths, large trees and the influence of England’s large garden cemeteries evident throughout.
Cast iron fingerposts highlight well-known flowers in the burial ground, while the fence facing Carpenter Street also has significance.
Featuring a stone plinth, construction of the fence started in the 1870s, and was erected in sections as funds became available.
“It’s a very good example of early Victorian planning as far as cemeteries are concerned,” Mr Macumber said.
According to the Bendigo Cemetery management plan, the site says much about our city.
“The monument to explorers Burke and Wills along with several Chinese footstones and associated Chinese burning towers stand among a remarkable collection of funerary craft reflecting the halcyon days and everyday life of a gold-driven provincial city.
“Their presence offers evidence of a period when Bendigo was a
social and political powerhouse.”
It’s for this reason the site was listed by Heritage Victoria in 2001, and many visitors now make the journey to the Bendigo Cemetery to learn of the city’s history and discover their family ties.
They are guided in their research by a team of seven Bendigo Cemeteries Trust volunteers, who open the learning centre to the public daily.
The centre has copies of old records dating back to the 1850s.
Many also enjoy discovering the Mortuary Chapel, a feature built in 1872 of granite quarried at Harcourt and flanked by two southern magnolias.
The Burke and Wills monument, which can be seen to the right of the chapel, was erected by the people of Bendigo.
When the foundation was laid in 1862, more than 5000 people attended.
According to historical records, objects of the time were buried at the site.
A four-metre tall hexagonal tuckpointed Chinese Funerary Tower is also popular with visitors to the burial ground.
The structure was and is used for the burning of offerings by the Chinese during specific ceremonies.
About 250 Chinese are buried near the funerary tower, with the first Chinese burial occurring in 1859.