Dunwich Cemetery

Dunwich cemetery is located on undulating land, dotted with trees, adjacent to the One Mile Jetty. Its earliest burials from the paddle steamer ‘Sovereign’ wrecked on the South Passage Bar in 1847. Dunwich became the quarantine station for Moreton Bay in July 1850. Within two months of the opening of the quarantine station, the ship ‘Emigrant’, with an outbreak of typhus on board, was put into isolation at Dunwich where a further 26 passengers died. Their burials are marked by two rows of metal crosses near the jetty. Overlooking them, are the graves of the Chief Medical Officer, Dr David Ballow, and the ship's doctor, Dr George Mitchell. In 1867 the quarantine station was transferred to Peel Island, and the Queensland government officially established the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum in the former quarantine buildings. In the 80 years spanning 1867-1947, 8,426 former inmates of the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum were buried in the Dunwich Cemetery. Traditional owners’ burials are generally laid out in family groups. Others of interest are those of John Vincent Cassim and his wife Mary, adjacent to the Ballow and Mitchell graves. Cassim came to Cleveland in 1855, managing Bigge’s Hotel, now the Grand View Hotel, in 1860.