Step inside the gate and you will find something that is far from a lonely a place. It is an irreplaceable record of our district’s past.
The cemetery holds a treasure of stories that stretch back as
far as 1855. Early pencil drawings from 1846 record a tiny cemetery in this spot, but the old wooden crosses and records are lost to time.
Wandering along the roadway and through the narrow lanes of this cemetery, the Nundah Historic Cemetery, in Hedley Ave, Nundah, you will soon realize that some of the first burials were German families, some from Zion Hill, the area we now call Nundah.
A mission station was established here in 1838 by a party of nine German lay missionary men, some with their wives, and two ordained ministers of religion, who left from Scotland and arrived in Sydney, then travelled on to Moreton Bay.
The men came here to teach the First Nations inhabitants Christianity. They were full of enthusiasm but poorly equipped and so were compelled to undertake the most arduous work to maintain themselves.
It was near this land that the missionaries built their wattle and daub cottages. The site later became known as German Station. However, the missionaries had little success in their efforts to teach the First Nations’ inhabitants Christianity.
In 1842 the government opened up Moreton Bay for settlement, so the missionaries were in the box seat to buy and own land and eventually became some of Queensland’s first free European non-convict settlers.
Soon after, many Scottish, English and Irish families arrived. Most headstones have a story to tell, some make you question how they lived and what life was like.
People from many nations and their descendants are buried here, including pioneer farmers, and soldiers from the Boer War, and the First and Second World Wars. There’s also an Irish family from Eagle Farm who looked after the powder magazine here in the early 1900s, as well as a keeper of tigers from Toombul.
Some headstones describe the person’s country of birth, year of arrival in Australia, the ship and occupation. Little children to have their stories to tell, and some are tragic.
The headstones have a wide variety of styles and many would have been made of sandstone from Breakfast Creek and Helidon; there are also marble, grey and red granite monuments. Milled cast iron designs, many from forged steel, fence the surrounds of many graves, and unusual tiles reflect the styles from pioneering days.
This cemetery is closed for new graves, although family graves can be used if 30 years have elapsed since the last family member was interred there. Family ashes also may be placed in existing family graves. The marble columbarium Memorial Wall for ashes may also be an option.
This cemetery is Heritage Listed on the National Estate Register, and also on the Queensland Heritage Register. It is most likely the oldest cemetery in Queensland.