Tabletop Cemetery

On a remote dirt track about 19km north-east of Croydon is another of the many cemeteries in the Croydon district, after it was declared a gold field in 1886. Tabletop township evolved in 1887 and a small school was established here in 1888; the first on these goldfields. The township emerged as a small service town with eight hotels, a post office, five stores, two blacksmiths, two billiard saloons, a chemist, two produce dealers and a police presence. Twenty-three potential burial sites have been identified with remnant surviving fabric including six graves with headstones or grave markers, one of which is in the style of a Chinese grave marker. At least three have iron railing surrounds. The grave of young Henry Adolphus Hasenkamp is a poignant reminder of the difficulties of living in a remote settlement with limited medical facilities. He was the son of the local policeman and police magistrate. Henry died in October 1893, about three weeks short of his eleventh birthday. His grave has been decorated with sea shells, symbolising resurrection.