New headstone photos: Appletree Creek and Broweena St Mary's Anglican

Having started this new blog some months ago, I've been exceedingly slack about posting to it. I will have to try to do better.

New to our headstone photo collection are:

• Appletree Creek cemetery (just north of Childers, Qld)
• Brooweena St Mary's Anglican cemetery (west of Maryborough, Qld)

Check them out at:http://www.chapelhill.homeip.net/FamilyHistory/Photos/

For reasons that aren't apparent to me, Appletree Creek was the main cemetery for Childers for many years, although the South Isis cemetery just to the south of Childers seems to be far closer to the town. We have also photographed South Isis (which has only a few headstones) but we haven't indexed it yet. Our impression is that South Isis hasn't had any recent burials whereas Appletree Creek is still in active use (and there seems to be space to use it for many more years). However, there is now a lawn cemetery in Childers itself that seems to be getting a lot of use (we didn't photograph it), so my guess is that Appletree Creek is now less popular with the Childers residents than it once was. There is also a crematorium in Maryborough (not sure if Bundaberg has one) so there may be fewer burials on that account. I think there was a collumbarium at the lawn cemetery but there wasn't one at either Appletree Creek or South Isis.

Also we recently added a number of small historic cemeteries outside the SE-Qld area (taken on our holidays late last year) which might interest someone. We did say "no cemeteries" when we set out on holidays, but David couldn't resist these ones :-)

• Eucla Travellers Cross, WA (near SA border)
• Fowlers Bay, SA
• Kanyaka Homestead, near Quorn, SA
• Oodnadatta Pioneer, SA
• William Creek, SA

What's coming up next? Indexing is underway for Goomeri, Kilkivan Shire. Watch this space ...

Jandowae - indexing finished

Phew, I finally finished indexing Jandowae. There were a lot of photos (over 800) and I felt that I was plugging away at it night after night, but never making much progress. Anyhow, eventually I finished the indexing for Jandowae.

You can see all the photos here:

http://www.chapelhill.homeip.net/FamilyHistory/Photos/Jandowae-Wambo/

or if you are looking for specific names (or are on dial-up and don't want to see all those thumbnails), try the alphabetical index:

http://www.chapelhill.homeip.net/FamilyHistory/Photos/Jandowae-Wambo/NameIndex.html

Note that the search function on the main page does NOT yet cover Jandowae. This is a third party service and we have to wait for them to vist the site (every couple of weeks) before new cemeteries are incorporated.

Enjoy!

Bribie Island

We went to Bribie Island to find the Beach Road cemetery. Unfortunately there isn't any Beach Road on Bribie Island, so we have no idea where the cemetery is.

However, we did find the Bribie Island Memorial Gardens, a very modern collumbarium (so no headstones just plaques over niches), so we photographed it instead. The memorial gardens were developed by the local Lions Club and they have landscaped it very nicely. It is a very pleasant setting and very well-maintained.

Now we just need to find out where the cemetery was. As the references to the cemetery predate the memorial gardens (which appear to have been established in the late 1990s), they must be separate places.

Bald Hills (Sandgate) cemetery, Brisbane

Today we were out photographing Bald Hills (also known as Sandgate) cemetery in Brisbane. Although it was originally an independent cemetery with its own trustees, it was later transferred to the Brisbane City Council.

The grounds are quite well-maintained in terms of mowing, but there are a number of smashed headstones. While some of the graves do have a lot of subsidence (about 1 metre in one case) which could have caused the headstones to fall and break, in a lot of cases there is no obvious reason why the headstone would be smashed and so one suspects vandalism (sadly). I guess this is why it is important to digitally conserve cemeteries (meaning to photograph them as we do) since we cannot ensure their physical conversation when there are vandals about. It is interesting that we rarely see vandalism in country cemeteries. It seems to be a city cemetery problem.

There is a fairly new toilet block there, but it was locked. Why bother building it if you are going to keep it locked? Brookfield cemetery was the same. I can only assume that they unlock the toilets for funerals.

Warra cemetery, Wambo Shire

Warra cemetery is now indexed, but the site-wide "search" function will not yet find it (it only runs every few weeks), so you will need to use the alphabetical index for that cemetery. That's why I didn't announce it in my email to the mailing lists and newsgroups. Cemeteries don't get announced until they have been indexed by the FreeFind search engine.

http://www.chapelhill.homeip.net/FamilyHistory/Photos/Warra-Wambo/

Warra is about 50km west of Dalby. We were there on Australia Day when a huge storm hit Dalby so we were photographing with the sky overhead becoming dark and threatening. We had to work very quickly as the storm seemed imminent (indeed, we finished not long before the storm hit). The storm also created strange lighting conditions.

Yangan - what is that other cemetery?

On Cemetery Road at Yangan, there appear to be two cemeteries. One has a sign saying it is the Anglican cemetery. The other has no sign and only a few headstones. What is this second cemetery? We are guessing it's a general cemetery, but one headstone did have a rosary hanging from it, so maybe it's a Catholic cemetery (there is a Catholic Church in Yangan).

Note. As well as the two cemeteries on Cemetery Road, there is also a Presbyterian cemetery behind the Presbyterian Church at Yangan.

New photos: Helidon, Maryvale, Milbong, Samsonvale, Upper Freestone, Yangan

New to our headstone photo collection:

* Helidon General cemetery, Gatton Shire
* Maryvale cemetery, Warwick Shire
* Maryvale Homestead cemetery, Warwick Shire [no headstones found!]
* Milbong St Luke's Lutheran cemetery, Boonah Shire
* Samsonvale (formerly Presbyterian) cemetery, Pine Rivers Shire
* Swan Creek Anglican cemetery, Warwick Shire
* Upper Freestone cemetery, Warwick Shire
* Yangan Anglican cemetery, Warwick Shire
* Yangan General? cemetery, Warwick Shire [can anyone confirm it is a general cemetery?]
* Yangan Presbyterian cemetery, Warwick Shire

All available for your viewing pleasure at:

http://www.chapelhill.homeip.net/FamilyHistory/Photos/