Linton Cemetery
History of the Linton Cemetery
It is thought that burials took place here from the time of the gold rush at Linton in the mid-1850s, however this cemetery was only officially surveyed and gazetted in 1860, and burials recorded from that date.
As with most cemeteries of its era, it was divided into denominational sections – Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and Church of England – with the Chinese in their own section at the north-eastern end.
It was governed by a Committee of Trustees, consisting of local representatives of the major Christian denominations, plus independents. As the plots were not numbered until 1872, and not all graves had headstones, many of the dead lie in unmarked graves. Amongst them, are two Aborigines – an Aboriginal woman known as Jennie who died in 1873 at Dreamer’s Hill south of Linton, and King Billy, regarded as ‘the King of the Booriyalloak Tribe,’ who died on 8 January 1882 at Mt Bute station.
In 2007, the Linton and District Historical Society erected in the Chinese section a commemorative board to the Chinese settlers of the district, and attempted to identify those buried here. Amongst the seventy-four burials there is one European wife of a Chinese man, and two Chinese-Australian babies. There are also Chinese men recorded as buried in other parts of the cemetery, for example, Wong Pow, who died in 1896 of phthisis and is buried in the Church of England section.
Over the twentieth century, the cemetery has added a lawn section and a rockery for cremated remains. More recently a plaque has been placed to acknowledge the stillborn babies buried in unmarked graves. There are a wide variety of significant native plants and grasses throughout the cemetery grounds.
The Cemetery Trust
The cemetery is administered by the Linton Cemetery Trust, which conducts regular working bees to maintain it. Trustees always were, and still are, volunteers, and include well-known long-term local residents and others with special association in the area.
Contact: Lee Monette, Secretary c/- Post Office Box, Linton 3360, ph. 0492 986 759.