Planned as part of Senior’s Week, the historical tour of the Ballarat New Cemetery landed the day before Halloween, or All Hallow’s Eve.
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Led by Kevin Frawley, who’s worked there for 42 years, the tour was a respectful exploration into the site and some of the more significant occupants, as well as what’s involved in looking after a contemporary cemetery.
The space stretches for more than 80 hectares, with another 30 to 40 in reserve - this will enable another 70 to 80 years of use.
The first person buried in the New Cemetery, in 1867, was a two-year-old boy, Edward Henry Wayne, who died of bronchitis.
The amount of young children buried in the cemetery still affects Mr Frawley.
“When I first started, as a 19-year-old, I thought the cemetery was full of old people, but it’s not, it’s full of young people,” he said.
“A lot of parents use to lose a child many years ago, and the child was perhaps taken away from them and they didn’t know where the child was buried.
“Today, it’s all totally different.”
Near the main gate, there’s a “Tree of Memory” for babies, the first of its kind in Victoria.
The cemetery also has one of the first crematoria outside Melbourne, and many niches and gardens for people to spread ashes.
Towards a lake used for irrigation, a newer area features streams and man-made waterfalls, providing a peaceful space for families.
Characters like Wathawurrung elder King Billy, ‘the last of the Ballarat Tribe’, Billy Butterfly Leung, in the traditional Chinese area, and gold miner and investor Martin Loughlin, owner of the tallest grave, are buried at the cemetery.
While the cemetery is non-denominational now, distinct areas serve different cultural needs for burials, including Dreamtime, built in partnership with Wadawurrung Aboriginal Co-operative and Finding Futures, and Jewish and Islamic spaces.
The graves of soldiers are well maintained, and the cemetery hopes to find more as-yet unrecognised soldiers.
Every Anzac Day, small Australian flags are placed on the graves.
In a partnership with community groups and RSLs, work is being done to put monuments on soldier’s graves that have fallen into disrepair.
One project the cemetery is currently pursuing is a focus on 150 significant women buried there.
So far, 70 stories have been found, and anyone wishing to contribute stories of their ancestors are invited to get in touch.
There is also space for the public to be involved in the cemetery’s upkeep, with fruit and rose pruning sessions becoming very popular.
For Mr Frawley, he’s glad graves are no longer dug with picks and shovels.
Previously, gravediggers would work all day from Monday to Friday, “in 40 degrees or -4”.
“We were doing 15 to 18 funerals a week, digging and backfilling all the graves by hand ,” Mr Frawley remembered.
Mr Frawley first got into the industry when a man who worked for his brother declined a job interview, and he saw an opportunity.
“I thought, hello, he doesn’t want the job, I might put in for that job.
“It doesn’t matter what happens in the community, or society, or Australia, whatever, they can never close the gates of the cemetery permanently, this place is always going to be open - I thought, this could be a job for life, and now it’s my 42nd year.”
Tours are also conducted in Heritage Week and can be arranged by appointment for groups.
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