Cemeteries

Bundaberg Regional Council now administers nine cemeteries in total right across the region.  Work is currently being undertaken to add all cemetery burial information into a single database, and this work will be completed in the New Year.  

Council currently administers or is Trustee for the following Cemeteries: 

Apple Tree Creek	Booyal	Gin Gin General & Lawn
Avondale	Childers Lawn	Goodnight Scrub
Bundaberg General & Lawn	Cordalba	Invicta (Historical)
Boolbunda	Currajong (Comonju)	South Isis (Historical)

South Kolan Cemetery is administered by Trustees.

Some of these cemeteries are closed for new burials.  Bundaberg Region also has numerous private cemeteries and lone graves. For further information, please contact the Cemetery Office. (contact details below)

Bundaberg Regional Cemeteries Burial List

If you would like to search the burial list to obtain some brief information including burial location, please enter a surname.

Map of Bundaberg Cemetery

Bundaberg Cemetery History

One hundred and twenty years have passed since the first recorded burial took place in the Bundaberg Cemetery. There were 16 burials recorded that year in 1879. Since that time the number has reached in excess of 23 000 burials.

Bundaberg Cemetery is one of the biggest windows into the history and people of this great region. Many of the founding fathers and mothers of our district are buried in the monumental section of the cemetery, with the present site dating back to 1873. The original site of the cemetery was located on land surrounded by Woongarra, Maryborough, Woondooma and McLean streets.

However, with the continuing prosperity of Bundaberg, Alexander Walker and Walter Adams envisaged the town would encroach on the cemetery, so in September 5th 1868 the two men gazetted the cemetery's present site. The original cemetery was duly closed with the remains exhumed and moved to either the General Cemetery or the Catholic Cemetery site in Fitzgerald Street in 1873.

Unfortunately the burial records pre May 22nd 1879 and any records of the exhumed were lost. The first recorded burial in the Bundaberg Cemetery is dated 22nd May 1879, leaving a six-year gap with no records of new burials nor of the transferred remains.

A Cemetery Trust was formed and they conducted the business of the cemetery from its inception until July 2001 when the Trusteeship was relinquished to Bundaberg City Council.

Since the cemetery's inception different burial options have been developed and offered to the public including diverse areas for placement of ashes and lawn burials.

Areas of interment and placement

• General Section - Monumental and above ground Vaults
• Lawn Section - The addition of the lawn cemetery to the Bundaberg Cemetery in 1964 was a realisation of the changing nature of burials in the region. Affordable, respectful and modern burials are what the Bundaberg Cemetery's lawn section offers. Exquisitely manicured lawns dispersed between rows of memorial headstones means the creation of a peaceful and serene environment to visit loved ones.
• Children's Sections - which incorporates a water feature and memorial rock.
• Memorial Walls - niches for the placement of ashes and erection of memorial plaques. An ideal area that is easily accessible in a beautiful and peaceful environment, surrounded by landscaped gardens.
• Rose Gardens - For placement or scattering of ashes in a picturesque and peaceful environment lined with rose bushes.
• Rock Gardens - For placement or scattering of ashes within a serene environment adorned with colourful shrubs and plants.
• Return Service Sections - Monumental Area, Lawn Area, Memorial Wall, Rock Garden, Rose Garden
• All areas excluding Return Service Sections have provision for the reservation of a plot or niche.

1. Graves are for interments and ashes placements.
2. Flowers may be placed in the vase receptacles provided on either side of the headstone.
3. Council will supply the vases on graves as part of our service. These vases will be placed by the cemetery staff. If the family wish to have the approved above ground style vase at a later date, these may be purchased.
4. No plastic, clay, tin, glass, or ceramic vases, no timber or ceramic pots, no pot plants. These will be removed and stored in the cemetery office for collection.
5. No ornaments are allowed in the Lawn area with the exception of the children's section.
6. All Lawn Section headstones are to be erected within six months after a burial.
7. There is no time requirement for the erection of a headstone in the General Sections.
8. All headstones and monuments have to meet the necessary standards as set by the Australian Standards and the Cemetery Authorities.
9. No headstones or plaques are to be erected, removed or restored without written authority.
10. The planting of trees or shrubs in the cemetery is not permitted in the Lawn sections. In the General sections written approval is required from the Cemetery Administration.
11. In the Lawn sections the turfing of the grave is completed when the complete row has been prepared. The laying of turf by family is on the understanding that it will be removed when the cemetery-turfing program is implemented.
12. Computerised records of burials are maintained - this enables a convenient, quick and detailed system.
13. All graves are photographed and linked to the burial record.
14. The person or persons whom arranged and signed for a burial or placement is the authorised burial rights holder.
15. A grave may be closed to further burial or ashes placement on written authority from the burial rights holder.
16. Bundaberg Cemetery endeavours to meet the need for all facets of burial and ashes requirements; rose gardens, rock gardens family plots, memorial walls etc.

If you require any further information, assistance or detail, the Cemetery Office hours are:
8am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday
Ph: 07 4130 4460 Fax: 07 4152 7073
Email: Email Cemetery

Friends of the Cemetery

Forming the new volunteer group known as Friends of the Cemetery came about when like minded people came together - their collective interest being the fascination with the recorded histories and the wonderful treasure trove of monuments in cemeteries.  

We began our work in the historic section of the cemetery known as D6.  The group has become privy to the stories behind the headstones and plots that have marked the last home of our early pioneers of Bundaberg.

One of the first shattered marble headstones we were to salvage marked the grave of two little Dredge boys who died before they were 2 years of age - one drowning after falling into a well and the other from illness.  The marble pieces of the small headstone were retrieved from the dirt, cleaned and installed on a concrete desktop alongside the cleaned sandstone plinth.

And then there was the Irishman, Mr Murphy, whose workmates and friends erected a huge marble headstone when he met his demise at 31 years.

In the early 1900's we not only had young men going off to war and being killed in far off lands, we also had incidents at home taking the lives of young people.  Gastric Influenza was not uncommon and one 14 year old victim, Miss Atthow died within days of first feeling ill.  Her sandstone plot, complete with a lead inscription on a beautiful marble headstone, has been repaired and rejuvenated by our group.

A great surprise for the group was during the excavation of a composite headstone of one such gentleman, a Mr Sachs who succumbed to Typhoid Fever at 35 years of age.  While gently digging up the headstone, a large crucifix was also unearthed.  Both have now been cleaned and reinstalled.

Hannah Elizabeth Thompson died unexpectedly at 48 years from "an attack of the paralysis".  According to a death notice in the "Mt Perry Mail" on the 4 September 1873 it states that Hannah Elizabeth Thompson was the first internment in the new cemetery (Bundaberg General Cemetery).  Ironically, Hannah's husband John, who was the town Surveyor, had previously unsuccessfully tried to obtain this land for grazing.

There are many children buried in the older section of the cemetery.  A crisis known as the Bundaberg tragedy in 1928 resulted in the deaths of children who were immunized against diphtheria.  An inquiry later revealed the vials of vaccine had become contaminated.  Whilst some children survived the incident, 12 others died.

But not all is doom and gloom.  There are many headstones that attest to the fortitude and strength of our pioneers who did live full lives way past the 3 score and 10.  Mr John Totten was one such gentleman who by the way was the father of Robert Totten, an early Mayor of Bundaberg.  Like many others, John emigrated to Australia.  A point worth noting - he emigrated and left his homeland of Northern Ireland at the age of 75, two years after his wife died!  Many other settlers in this late 1800 - early 1900 era came predominately from England, Scotland, Ireland and Germany to set up their farms and businesses.

During 2008, we cleaned and repaired over 24 grave sites.  It's a rewarding contribution to our community and history to assist Council in their endeavours to present the Bundaberg General Cemetery as a welcoming place for all visitors.  We enjoy our work there and you are welcome to join us.  All enquiries to Brenda Cochrane  4152 2648 or the Bundaberg General Cemetery Office.