Warwick General Cemetery
| Warwick General Cemetery | |
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Warwick General Cemetery, 2015
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| Location | Wentworth Street, Warwick, Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 28°12′36″S 152°00′12″E / 28.2099°S 152.0032°ECoordinates: 28°12′36″S 152°00′12″E / 28.2099°S 152.0032°E |
| Design period | 1840s - 1860s (mid-19th century) |
| Built | 1853 - |
| Architect | Dornbusch & Connolly |
| Architectural style(s) | Gothic |
| Official name: Warwick General Cemetery | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 27 April 2001 |
| Reference no. | 602152 |
| Significant period | 1853- ongoing (fabric, historical use) |
| Significant components | memorial/monument, pathway/walkway, crypt / vault, shed - shelter, headstone, gate - entrance, grave marker, denominational divisions, road/roadway, burial/grave, tower - bell / belfry, seating, memorial - pavilion, sculpture, plaque, columbarium, grave surrounds/railings |
| Builders | Phil Thornton |
 Location of Warwick General Cemetery in Queensland
Location of Warwick General Cemetery in Queensland
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Warwick General Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery at Wentworth Street, Warwick, Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Dornbusch & Connolly and built from 1853 onwards by Phil Thornton. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 27 April 2001.
The first section of the Warwick General Cemetery was surveyed in 1850, when the town of Warwick was officially laid out, and the earliest burial is understood to have been in 1853. Warwick General Cemetery is located to the west of the Warwick central business district, on an elevated area near a bend in the Condamine River. While the size of the cemetery has changed it has always been organised with denominational sections and includes monuments and memorials pertaining to those who lived in Warwick and the surrounding district, including the prominently situated William Mitchner Shelter-shed.
Allan Cunningham's exploration of the southern Darling Downs in 1827 first revealed the potential of the Darling Downs for pastoral and agricultural usage. In the 1840s pastoralists moved into the area, and in the late 1840s the township of Warwick was established by the NSW colonial government as an administrative and service centre for the surrounding pastoral district. An initial survey of the town was undertaken in 1849, with further survey in 1850. The latter included 8 acres reserved as general cemetery, to the northwest of the township. The first sale of Warwick town lots took place in July 1850.
While deaths and burials occurred in the region and there are early graves on pastoral properties, the first known burial in the Warwick General Cemetery was that of Thomas Howard in 1853. On 23 February 1864 a Deed of Grant was issued to three trustees for 2 acres of land for sole use as by the Church of England. It does not seem that the other denominations acquired such a document. Subsequently, an area to the west and north to the Condamine River of the burial grounds became a reserve for extension of the general cemetery.
Management of this cemetery has often been controversial. A visitor to the region complained in 1859 that the cemetery needed a pig-proof fence. Complaints about the cemetery continued with comments about locals using it for their dairy cows being raised by an alderman in Council in late March 1867. The 1865 Cemeteries Act provided for the regulation of cemeteries throughout Queensland and required Trustees to make by-laws in accordance with the Act. After public meetings in January 1868 the names of five denominational Warwick General Cemetery trustees were gazetted in June 1868. The Trustees formulated regulations and charges. Prior to this no cemetery records existed, however, cemetery transcriptions revealed 11 burials in the Methodist section, 5 in the Presbyterian, 19 in the Catholic and 25 in the Anglican section, pre-1868.
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