Creswick Cemetery (Creswick Cemetery Trust)

Full description

Creswick Public Cemetery commenced operations in 1858, with the first burial taking place on 20 December 1858. The cemetery was first mentioned in the Victoria Government Gazette on 7 April 1858, with the official appointment of trustees for the cemetery under the authority of the Governor-in-Council.

The cemetery was established in Creswick in response to requests for a permanent cemetery site. On 7 November 1856, Alexander Lewers wrote to the Colonial Secretary following a meeting of Creswick residents, asking for advice on how to obtain a permanent cemetery for the township. In the letter, Lewers observes that up until the time of writing, burials were taking place 'on a piece of ground within two hundred yards of the township boundary' and that the ground had 'since proved to be on a lead of gold'. Lewers further observed that the 'crowded state' of the small parcel of land used for burials made it 'dangerous in the highest degree'. This older cemetery, now adjacent to Calembeen Park, had no appointed trustees, was never gazetted, and no records of burials at this location remain extant.

By March of 1858, trustees had been elected for the new cemetery, and a plan of the subdivision of ground for the new cemetery site had been produced. The new cemetery site of twenty acres was located on the Clunes Road to the north of the Creswick township. An additional triangular area of land adjacent to the cemetery and the Clunes Road was approved in 1868, and the entire area of 'twenty-five acres one rood thirty-three perches' was officially gazette on 12 March 1869.

Cemeteries are controlled by a Trust appointed by the Governor-in-Council on the recommendation of the responsible Minister. Trustees are responsible for the administration and maintenance of cemeteries, the collection of fees and expenditure of revenue (for example: grants, subsidies received) the registration of burials and cremations, the making of rules and regulations and determining the scale of fees.