Swan Hill Memorial Park was surveyed and commissioned in the 1850’s. The surveyor was Mr Robert McPherson who ironically became the cemetery’s first interment in 1859 with the first trustees not appointed until July 1860.
Up until this time, the village of Swan Hill had no official cemetery, although it is believed that an unofficial site was located north of the Swan Hill City Bowling greens, north east corner of Curlewis and Pritchard Streets.
In the early days the trustees were representatives of the various religious bodies in the district. The first trustees were Duncan Campbell (Presbyterian), Robert Taylor (Presbyterian), Samuel Watson (Church of England), and Benjamin Gummow (Church of England). They had a struggle to eventually find representatives from the Catholics and the Wesleyan’s.
On November 18, 1886 a destructive grass fire ripped through the Cemetery taking all it’s records with it. Even tombstones, constructed of wood were destroyed, leaving the modern secretaries often struggling for information on the past burials of the early days of the cemetery.
The cemetery has had many sextons and trust members come and go over the years. Most often giving their own flavour to the current records. In the early days the Sexton was in charge of everything from record keeping to digging the graves. It was a lowly job, and one often given to someone who was physically strong but not necessarily adapt at record keeping.
Today we are thankful for modern day record keeping and the grave digging machinery available. It certainly makes the job a lot easier.
Swan Hill Cemetery Trust (swanhillcemeterytrust.com.au)
