Maryborough Cemetery

This was the third cemetery in Maryborough, established in 1873. The earliest was on the corner of Alice and Aldridge Streets and the second was part of the Elizabeth Park Rose Garden on Kent Street. Wandering through the Walker Street entrance to the cemetery, you may be surprised to find a mortuary chapel, topped by a tower, locally known as ‘the rocket’. The chapel was designed by architect Willoughby Powell, along with a sextons’ cottage, which no longer exists. The 1884 chapel provides shelter for mourners and stands at the intersection of the internal road system dividing burials of the four main Christian denominations: Roman Catholic, Church of England, Presbyterian and Wesleyan. The mortuary chapel was funded through the subdivision and sale of the earlier Kent Street cemetery. In 1907, residents whose relatives were buried in Kent Street were given the option of relocating the headstones to the new site; hence the existence of headstones predating the cemetery. Graves of pioneers such as Edgar Aldridge, Henry Palmer, Martin Geraghty and Patrick Brennan are a few of those to be found here. A war cemetery was established in 1942, and a section of lawn cemetery in 1960, which continues to expand.