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Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery at the corner of South Street and Anzac Avenue, Harristown, Queensland, Australia. It was surveyed in May 1850, and is one of the earliest surviving cemeteries in Queensland. The cemetery is large, containing over 45,000 burials. It has been run by the City of Toowoomba, and its successor the Toowoomba Regional Council, since 1974; previously it was run by government-appointed trustees. Many prominent people associated with the Darling Downs are buried in the cemetery, and all sections of the cemetery remain in use. Notable Toowoomba stonemasons R. C. Ziegler & Son, Henry Bailey, Walter Bruce, John H. Wagner and the Bruce Brothers are all associated with monuments within the cemetery. The cemetery was originally divided into denominational sections, with sections for Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Wesleyans, Congregationalists, Jews and Pagans; the latter two were converted into a cemetery for ex-military personnel around the 1950s, and sections for paupers, stillborn babies and Muslims have also been added. The cemetery reserve was extended between 1870 and 1873, with significant improvements being made to the site in the 1870s as Toowoomba developed as a regional centre. Smaller expansions to the cemetery reserve were made in 1882 and 1906. Three shelter-sheds were built (), which survive and are part of the cemetery's heritage listing. The cemetery was again expanded in 1957 following concerns that the existing reserve would soon be fully occupied, but little of this has been utilised. The cemetery was neglected during the 1960s, and by the 1970s many of the graves were overgrown, or had deteriorated or been vandalised. Administration of the cemetery passed to the City of Toowoomba in 1974, with the council restoring the site. A further reserve was transferred to the Council for cemetery purposes in 1987, but has not been used. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 14 August 2009; the heritage listing does not include the 1957 and 1987 reserve expansions. == History == The Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery, surveyed in May 1850, was the first official burial ground for the Drayton-Toowoomba district, and the second on the Darling Downs (the Warwick cemetery was surveyed two months earlier). The site was expanded to close to its present extent in the early 1870s. It is a large cemetery with over 45,000 burials, illustrative of the first phase of non-Indigenous settlement on the Downs, and of the consolidation of Toowoomba as an important regional centre from the mid-nineteenth century.〔 As one of the earliest surviving public burial grounds in Queensland, the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery can be compared with the Nundah Cemetery (established in the 1840s by German missionaries and surveyed as a public cemetery in 1862); Dunwich Cemetery (earliest identified burials date to 1847, although possibly not surveyed until 1850); and the Warwick General Cemetery (surveyed in March 1850, earliest identified burial 1853). It pre-dates a number of other early and historic surviving public cemeteries in Queensland, including those at South Rockhampton (1860); West End at Townsville (1865); South Brisbane (1866), Ipswich (first recorded burial 1868), and Toowong (established 1866, formally opened 1875).〔 Early cemeteries are important records of the pattern of non-indigenous settlement in Queensland. Prior to 1856 there was no provision for the civil recording of deaths in New South Wales (of which Queensland was still part), and often no churches in newly settled districts to keep this record. For example, along with a brief newspaper notice, the earliest identified headstone at the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery is the only other public record of the death of Michael Gorry, a young Drayton storekeeper who died on 25 March 1852, aged 28.〔 Drayton evolved after Thomas Alford opened a store and inn at a place called The Springs on Westbrook Creek in 1843, to service travellers and the newly established pastoral runs of the Darling Downs. Located at the intersection of two tracks leading from the south and west to Gorman's and Hodgson's gaps in the Main Range, the site soon attracted other trades and stores. The Alfords named their home Drayton, and in 1845 this became the official name of the settlement. Many considered Drayton would emerge as the premier township on the Downs, and its survey took priority over other village settlements. In 1849 government surveyor James Charles Burnett prepared a design for the town of Drayton and chose a site three to four miles (4.8-6.5 km) to the north-east for suburban allotments of 27-40 acres (10.90-16.2ha). Located where two swampy creeks converged as the headwaters of Gowrie Creek, this area was known as The Swamp/s or the Drayton Swamp, and later as Toowoomba.〔 When preparing the detailed survey of Drayton in 1850, Burnett added a cemetery to the north of the village, mid-way between Drayton town and the Drayton Swamp suburban allotments, on slightly elevated land close to the road connecting the two settlements. Prior to this, persons who died at Drayton had been buried near their homes along Westbrook Creek, and behind Dr Hopkin's hospital near the centre of the township. Burnett set aside 8 acres (3.2ha) divided into denominational sections: Roman Catholics were allotted 2 acres (0.8ha) in the north-east quarter; Episcopalians (Church of England) 2 acres in the south-east; 1 acre (0.4ha) each was set aside in the western half for Presbyterians, Wesleyans, and Congregationalists; and the north-west corner was divided into 2 roods (0.2ha) each for Jews and Pagans. During the 1850s each denomination was expected to maintain its own section of the Drayton burial ground, but it became neglected, with cattle and pigs roaming across.〔 By March 1851 the population of Drayton had reached about 200, and concern was being expressed about the adequacy of the water supply obtained from Westbrook Creek to serve the growing community. From this period the Drayton Swamp, with its greater water supply, became a more attractive proposition for an urban settlement. A bridle track had been formed through the swamp and along the route over the Range that later became the toll road, and in the early 1850s William Horton of Drayton began subdividing land at the Swamp, constructing a bridge and a public house to encourage buyers. In August 1852 Thomas Alford of Drayton opened the first general store at Drayton Swamp, which he called the Toowoomba General Store. In response to public demand, from late 1852 the New South Wales government began the survey of smaller parcels of 1-2 acres and the laying out of streets and town sections. By the time Queensland separated from New South Wales in December 1859, Drayton Swamp had become the town of Toowoomba, with municipal status granted on 19 November 1860. At the time of the 1861 census, it was clear that Toowoomba, with a population of 1183 compared with Drayton's 320, had become the principal settlement.〔 With Toowoomba becoming more established there was a correspondingly greater use being made of the cemetery, as evidenced by a number of surviving headstones from the early 1860s. By September 1863, Toowoomba Anglicans were contemplating construction of a mortuary chapel and a new fence to their section of the burial ground, as soon as funds could be obtained. In July 1864, the Queensland government issued a deed of grant to Church of England trustees for the 2 acres of the cemetery set aside for Episcopalian use in 1850, although a survey office sketch plan of the cemetery drawn in October the same year makes it clear that Anglican burials were taking place in the north-east quarter of the cemetery, and Roman Catholic burials in the south-east - the reverse of Burnett's 1850 layout.〔 Following the introduction of The Cemeteries Act of 1865, which provided for the regulation of cemeteries throughout Queensland, seven trustees from Toowoomba (representing the principal religious denominations in the district) were appointed in November 1866 to manage the whole 8 acres of the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery. Two of these trustees - William Henry Groom (first Mayor of Toowoomba) and Samuel George Stephens - remained on the board for almost 40 years and both are buried in the cemetery. The new trustees immediately prepared cemetery by-laws, which were approved by Governor-in-Council in January 1867, and the first recorded burial was made on 16 December 1866. In 1867 the first sexton was appointed, and only he could open a grave in the cemetery.〔 In 1868 a mortuary chapel was erected by the Anglican community of Toowoomba and Drayton. This was located just north of the Church of England burial ground, technically outside the cemetery reserve at the time. The timber building, which could seat 60 to 70 persons, had been removed from Ballard's Camp on the Main Range Railway, gifted by Samuel Wilcox, agent for railway contractors Peto, Brassey and Betts, after the railway was completed and the camp disbanded. A belfry and bell were erected adjacent to the chapel in 1871. None of these structures has survived.〔 Toowoomba grew rapidly during the 1860s. By the census of September 1871 its population had reached 3,543, compared with Drayton's 792. Between September 1870 and August 1873 the cemetery reserve was extended to close to its present size, creating a total area of just under 67 acres (27ha) and gaining extensive frontages to the Drayton Road (now Anzac Avenue) and South Street. Through the 1870s cemetery improvements included surveying, clearing and fencing new sections of the cemetery; forming, gravelling and turfing walks and paths; and planting trees and shrubs. No burials were made in the land fronting the Drayton Road. This area contained the sexton's residence and with ornamental trees planted, acquired a park-like appearance. A central entrance road was made through this new eastern section of the cemetery, from the Drayton Road to an earlier north-south access road off the Drayton Road that ran north past the original reserve to South Street. In 1882 a small parcel of land between the south-east corner of the burial ground and the Drayton Road was formerly incorporated into the cemetery reserve, creating a total area of nearly 67.75 acres (27.4ha). In 1905 the L-shaped road through the cemetery off South Street and the Drayton Road was officially closed and in March 1906 this also was incorporated into the cemetery reserve, which now encompassed just over 69.5 acres (28.1ha).〔 At least three sexton's cottages have been constructed on the reserve, but none survive. The first probably was erected in 1867, when the first sexton was appointed. This was re-built in 1869-1871. A third sexton's lodge was constructed in 1892, designed by the Toowoomba architectural firm of John Marks and Son. It was located in the north-east section of the cemetery reserve, just east of the South Street entrance, with a private drive off Drayton Road.〔 In March 1875 John Devine was appointed sexton, initiating 86 years of continuous service by three generations of the Devine family as sextons of the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery: John from 1875 to 1898; his son William John from 1898 to 1934; and William's son James Robert from 1934 to 1961. William and James planted most of the trees surviving in the cemetery grounds, including the avenue of trees along the entrance driveway from South Street. About 1930, William planted 14 Norfolk Island pine trees along the drive leading from Anzac Avenue west towards the sexton's residence, each tree representing one member of his family. Following James Devine's retirement the sexton's residence was removed, and in 1965 a lawn cemetery was established on the site.〔 In the interwar period () three timber-framed shelter sheds with terracotta-tiled roofs and lattice in-fill panels to the sides, were erected in the cemetery. A larger, earlier shelter shed has been removed from the site.〔 In the early 1950s a survey of the cemetery anticipated that the existing reserve would be fully occupied within 20 years, and in 1957 just over 31 acres (12.62ha) adjoining the western boundary of the cemetery was granted to the cemetery trustees. However, little of this has been utilised for burials, reflecting the rise in popularity of cremations in the late twentieth century. A private crematorium was opened in Toowoomba in 1966 and a columbarium established in the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery in the early 1990s.〔 About the mid-1950s part of the ground set aside in 1850 for "Jews" and "Pagans" was made into a cemetery for ex-military service personnel. An annual service is still held here on the Sunday before Anzac Day (25 April).〔 Toowoomba monumental masons have been associated with the design and construction of most of the headstones and other monuments in the cemetery since the 1850s. These include: Walter Bruce from 1871 to 1968 (by 1915 the firm was known as Bruce Brothers); Ernest S Hunt in the 1880s and 1890s; Henry Bailey in the 1890s; John H. Wagner from 1896 (this firm still operates as J. H. Wagner and Sons); and Rudolph C. Ziegler from (this business became R. C. Ziegler and Son in the 1920s and still operates). Other monumental masons who left their mark included: W. Colcombe, Swamp, 1854; Whitfield, Toowoomba, mid-1860s; and J. Cameron, Toowoomba, 1873.〔 The cemetery was neglected during the 1960s and by the 1970s the earlier graves were overgrown with grasses, weeds and trees, and many headstones and grave surrounds had been vandalised or allowed to deteriorate. In October 1974 administration of the cemetery passed to the Toowoomba City Council, which cleared the overgrowth and transformed the cemetery into a community asset. In 1987 an additional 12.62ha along the southern boundary of the cemetery was transferred to the Council for cemetery purposes, but has not been used.〔 By 2008 there were more than 45,000 burials in the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery. In addition to the original sections, designated areas for paupers, stillborn babies and Muslims have been established. All sections of the cemetery remain in use.〔 Many of Queensland's early and prominent citizens lie buried here, including: pastoralists William Kent of Jondaryan and William Beit of Westbrook; politicians such as Gilbert Eliott (first Speaker of the Queensland Parliament), James Taylor (member of the first Queensland parliament), and William Henry Groom (first mayor of Toowoomba and Queensland's first representative in the Commonwealth parliament); surveyor and explorer Francis Thomas Gregory; Brisbane's first Town Clerk, William Boyce; and notable personalities such as John Moffat of Irvinebank and George Essex Evans, the "Poet of Federation". Also buried in the cemetery are Thomas and Elizabeth Alford, who gave the names to both Drayton and Toowoomba.〔 The cemetery is also the final resting place of Darling Downs station workers who helped establish some of the earliest pastoral empires in Queensland - such as stockman John Hill, speared by Aborigines on Eton Vale Station in 1843, whose remains were transferred to the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery in 1909; of railway navvies who gave their lives constructing the Main Range Railway; of Aboriginal people, who between 1868 and 1911 were recorded simply as "Aboriginal" plus an English first name, as in "Aboriginal Billy"; of Chinese persons buried in the "pagan" section; and of persons executed at Toowoomba Gaol and buried without headstones. The early pattern of immigrant settlement in the Drayton-Toowoomba district is reflected in the numerous Scottish, English, Irish and German names found on the headstones.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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