Buninyong Old Burial Ground

Buninyong Old Burial Ground

1840s - 1856

This small area was the original cemetery for residents of Buninyong in the 1840s. Unfortunately there are no names or tombstones that survive, but we do know the names of some of those who were buried here before the new Buninyong cemetery began being used from 1850:

• The first death recorded in the area was Terence McManus, a shepherd working for the Learmonths who was speared by an Aboriginal in April 1838.
• In November 1846 Edward Martin, a servant of John Veitch, was murdered at the Buninyong Inn.
• Euphemia Innes, wife of George Innes, died in childbirth on 1 January 1847.
• On 1 February 1848 Corporal William Harvey of the Buninyong mounted police was mortally wounded. 

The new cemetery was first surveyed in 1849 and, according to Thomas Hiscock, the first burial at the new cemetery was Eli Thomas on 20 August 1850.

Burials continued to be made here until 1856. There were up to 120 people buried in this ground. It is impossible to know exactly who was buried here, as no headstones survive, and Civil Registration of Deaths in Victoria did not begin until 1853.

The Bunya Bunya tree, with plaque, was planted by the Buninyong Country Women's Association on 17 April 1988, to mark the area where an earlier old Eucalyptus tree had stood. 

Details about early burials can be obtained from the Old Library in Warrenheip St.