Buninyong Cemetery
The Learmonths first settled in the Buninyong District in 1838 and there were a number of burials in the Old Burial Ground in Learmonth Street. Ballarat City Council now manages the Old Burial Ground with the adjoining reserve Desoza Park. A cemetery Trust manages the Cemetery.
A preliminary survey of the Township of Buninyong by Surveyor Smythe in 1849 shows the present cemetery on the map divided into four denominational sections. It is therefore possible that the Cemetery began to be used in 1850 although it was only officially recorded in 18566. The earliest recorded burial with a headstone is Presbyterian 411: Margaret Gullan, aged 45, who dies 3 December 1852. The numbering of the plots has been changed since the first survey and all the earliest burials are on the central high ground away from the creek.
In Buninyong's prosperous gold mining days there was a large local population of approximately 10,000 and there were many deaths due to unhygienic conditions, women dying in childbirth and men being ki8lled in mining accidents or from miners disease. Burials were averaging more than 100 a year and a full-time Sexton was employed. A report in the Buninyong Telegraph, 22 October 1872 gives great praise to the Sexton of the time, a Mr Bull:
"There were well-maintained flower beds, shrubs and trees along the main East-West Drive,
the banks of the creek having been alternately planted with willows and elms."
Gold mining began to decline and by the beginning of the First World War the last deep lead mines had closed and Buninyong's population continued to dwindle and so, in 1968 the last permanent Sexton retired. His role has been taken over by the Cemetery Trust Secretary and the gravedigger.
With income continuing to fall, the cemetery became overgrown and neglected until in 1991 the Cemetery Trust Secretary, Alan Bath, approached the Buninyong Shire Council seeking their assistance to restore the cemetery. A Shire Councillor was appointed to the Cemetery Trust and the Shire drew up a comprehensive Capital and Maintenance Works program covering mowing, the control of noxious weeds, the identification and assessment of existing trees and shrubs, the construction of new roads, a dam and reforming the creek bed. As a result of the Shire's efforts, various unemployment schemes and volunteer assistance from a group known as "Dad's Army", the Cemetery is now in a presentable condition.
Information on the history of the Buninyong Cemetery was supplied by Derick Leather,
Buninyong & District Historical Society.
Contact the Buninyong Cemetery Trust on: 0415 929 571