Ballaarat Old Cemetery
BALLAARAT OLD CEMETERY. This cemetery was gazetted on 20 May 1856 and covers 17 acres (approximately 7 hectares) with about 11,000 graves (35,000 interments). Half the burials in this cemetery took place before 1885. The cemetery was established on the site of a burial ground, which had been in use since 1848 with Mr Ethersay, the self-appointed Sexton, compiling the first registers. The rules were laid out on 13 June 1854. A Board of Trustees, formed by denominational representatives on 25 February 1856, was appointed to undertake the administration, Joseph Dixie nominated as secretary and Leonard Whittingham as Sexton. The first official meeting of the trustees was held on 24 April 1856 when Mr Ethersay was asked to promptly ‘remove himself … within 14 days [from the cemetery grounds] and to cease to interfere with the duties of the Sexton’. On 5 December 1856 the cemetery grounds were resurveyed and the southern portion attached. In 1857 Mr Fowlkes completed the construction of the mortuary chapel, and the cemetery was fenced. By the 8 December 1869 Messrs Stamp and Son erected the fountain, and the impressive gates designed by architect Joseph Doane and erected by Stamp were in place, the old gates being donated to the Orphan Asylum. Chinese residents were granted permission by 4 August 1883 to build a brick oven for the purpose of burning deceased persons papers and wax lights. There are approximately 900 Chinese burials in the Old Cemetery. A rotunda was built in 1892 and the central avenue metalled ten years later. The Cemetery is run by the Ballaarat General Cemeteries Trust, and is well maintained with a fulltime groundsman. On 27 February 1998 and located in the Gatehouse near the entrance, a new centre allows visitors to search on a touchscreen computer for the location of graves of people buried in either the Ballarat Old or the New Cemetery.[1]
The Diggers' Memorial
Most of the diggers were buried immediately after the Eureka battle in a common grave in the Ballaarat Old Cemetery. Alpheus Boynton, a Geelong carter, described the funeral procession, one of the largest seen for its time, which wound its way passed the soldiers’ Camp and proceeded to the cemetery. He wrote that ‘a number of dray loads of dead bodies were taken to the burying ground about a mile on Sunday. Many have died since of their wounds both diggers and soldiers. We were on our way to Ballarat and met coffins, and men with broken limbs returning to Geelong’. A government officer from the camp recorded that ‘the dead were buried the same day in the cemetery. The bodies of the insurgents, placed in rough coffins made hurriedly, were laid in a separate grave, the burial service being performed by the clergyman to whose congregation they belonged’. On 4 December ‘the funerals of several of those who fell at the Stockade and were removed by their friends, took place today. They were attended by several hundred men, who marched three abreast up the Main Road and past the Camp, during which the garrison was under arms’. The grave at the Ballarat Old Cemetery was, presumedly, marked, but on 22 March 1856 a Monument, known as the Diggers’ Monument, was unveiled on the spot. James Leggatt, a sculptor from Geelong, donated it and the monument was described at the time as being ‘the finest workmanship of the kind seen in the colony’. It was a grey sandstone obelisk, surmounted by a draped urn, and resting on a bluestone plinth. It has the inscription: ‘Sacred to the memory of those who fell on the memorable 3rd December 1854 in resisting the unconstitutional proceedings of the Victorian Government. This monument was presented by James Leggatt, Geelong, to the people of Ballarat and by them erected on the 22nd March 1856’. It is 3.3 metres high and with a 1-metre width at its base. A cast iron fence on a bluestone plinth was erected on 15 Oct 1872. Although the name of Thaddeus Moore appears on the Eureka monument he was buried in Geelong on 4 December 1854. According to Ian McFarlane three men, Moore, Gittings and Hynes were buried in Geelong. [2]
The Soldiers' Memorial
The soldiers who died during the storming of the Eureka Stockade were buried in the same cemetery: The day was hot and dusty as the cortege moved along to the place of burial, a slightly rising ground nearly a mile from the township. This rural cemetery was still wild and open; no fence having yet been placed around it, for even this was an expensive process at a goldfield. But some excuse appeared for this apparent negligence, for the ground had evidently been but recently devoted to its present purpose, as a small number of graves amongst a large population indicates[3]
Several headstones were erected to commemorate individual soldiers of the Military: Captain Henry Wise, Privates Michael Roney and Joseph Wall, of the 40th Regiment. and Captain George Littlehales and Privates William Webb, Felix Boyle and John Hall of the 12th Regiment, as well as smaller markers for children of soldiers. It is presumed that, as with British military graves in many other parts of the world, the gravestones were paid for by the individual regiments and maintained by the regiment. The soldiers’ area was unfenced until August 1872 when the Ballarat Council received a ‘voucher from the Department of Public Works for the payment (as loan) of fifty pounds for fencing the Soldiers’ grave at the cemetery when the work has been completed as therein directed’. In 1879 the Government of Victoria ‘at the request of the citizens of Ballarat’ asked for improvements to be made and the Soldiers’ Monument was constructed of Waurn Ponds limestone. [4]
The Diggers' Monument is 5.4 metres tall and 1.2 metres wide at its base. An obelisk mounted on a pedestal carried two marble slabs upon which were inscribed ‘Victoria’ and ‘Duty’. The inscription read ‘In this place, with other soldiers and civilians of the military camp then in Ballarat, were buried the remains of the British soldiers, … who fell dead or fatally wounded a the Eureka Stockade, in brave devotion to duty, on Sunday, the 3rd day of December, 1854, whilst attacking a band of aggrieved diggers in arms against what they regarded as a tyrannous administration’. [5]
The Eureka Monuments are now recognised on the Register of the National Estate being legally registered 30 June 1992.[6]
Eureka Related Burials
Felix Boyle, 12th Regiment
John Hall , 12th regiment
George Littlehales, 12th Regiment
Michael Roney, 40th Regiment
Joseph Wall, 40th Regiment
William Webb, 12th Regiment
Henry Wise, 40th Regiment
References
- ↑ Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
- ↑ Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
- ↑ Withers, W.B., History of Ballarat and Some Ballarat Reminiscences, Ballarat Heritage Services, p156).
- ↑ Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
- ↑ Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
- ↑ Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
