Ipswich General Cemetery is a monumental cemetery with historical significance and only existing reservations or, in some cases, family graves can be used.
Location
Cnr Warwick Road and Cemetery Road, Ipswich
Facilities
- Closed to new burials
- Historic monumental cemetery
- Public restroom
- For details of burials and cremated remains contact Ipswich Cemeteries
History
Early in 1842, as a preparation for free settlement, Henry Wade carried out several surveys for a town on the site of the old convict station. The new town was named “Ipswich”. Surviving copies of Wade‘s surveys show a location for “burial grounds” south of the town centre. However this does not mean that the burial ground was established in 1842 or 1843. These notations were added to Wade‘s drawings at a later date - the style appears slightly different and the scale marker awkwardly overlaps the burial grounds on one of the surveys.
This lack of a cemetery is confirmed by a letter written in early 1844 by John Wickham, Police Magistrate in Brisbane, to the Colonial Secretary in Sydney. In this letter, he stated that there was no burial ground at Ipswich and asked for one to be established in the town. The request was approved and in May-June 1844, surveyor Burnett marked out seven portions of land at Ipswich for burials.
In 1849, the ministers of the various religions complained about the shallow depth of soil in the cemetery. Surveyor Warner was instructed to select a new site and he found one a little further east where he said there was a good depth of soil which was ―stiff black loam‖. At this time, Warner found that the boundaries of the original cemetery had not been clear to local people and they had been burying some of their dead closer to the town. He asked several local inhabitants to accompany him to the cemetery so he could show them the correct boundaries for future burials. (In 1886, the Cemetery Trustees received permission from the Government to relocate about six bodies which had been buried outside the cemetery.)
The new cemetery area was in use by late 1850, one of the earliest burials being that of a local publican Michael Burns.
Ipswich General Cemetery is fully fenced to reduce vandalism and the gates are locked each day at 6.00pm and opened from 6.00am.
More Information
Discover Ever After allows you to easily search burial information for the following Ipswich cemeteries, for free:
- Haigslea Cemetery
- Ipswich General Cemetery
- Stone Quarry Cemetery
- Tallegalla Cemetery
- Warrill Park Lawn Cemetery
Explore it today at Ipswich.discovereverafter.com