Penguin General Cemetery

Penguin General Cemetery

Penguin General Cemetery was gazetted a public cemetery in 1897; it overlooks the township of Penguin and the Bass Strait in Tasmania, Australia. It is situated on Main Street, a kilometre west of the town’s Post Office, on land originally owned by Reverend W.H. Walton of the Primitive Methodist Church.^[1]

History

Interpretive Signage

Baby John Lancaster was Penguin’s first death, in 1865, four years after European settlement.^[2] Eliza Ann Hales was buried in the cemetery in 1869, her gravestone survives.

A community meeting on 28 January 1885 established the Penguin Cemetery Trust.^[3] Twelve years and many burials later, the site was gazetted as a public cemetery, known then as the Penguin Public Cemetery. The first meeting of the Trust committee was held on 6 January 1886; the last recorded meeting on 24 June 1943.

Though not evident now, meeting minutes indicate that in its earlier days, the cemetery was portioned off according to religious denomination. Minutes also indicate additional lands were purchased as demand grew. In 1957 the cemetery opened its new section, essentially delineating the old from the new. Eventually becoming landlocked, the cemetery closed in 1977, when the nearby Penguin/Ulverstone Lawn Cemetery opened on South Pine Road, though the occasional burial occurs.^[1]

Heritage-listing

Penguin's Colourful Heritage

Penguin General Cemetery was heritage-listed in 2007 under Tasmania’s Historic Cultural Act 1995, for its evolutionary pattern of Penguin life, its research potential, community significance, and associations with Tasmanian history.^[4][5][6] At rest here are Bounty immigrants of the 1850s, returned soldiers from the Boer, First and Second World Wars, many of the town’s most notable former residents, as well as former convicts (pictured).

Penguin History Group

The Penguin History Group has played a role in the cemetery’s recent history.^[7] Before its inception, however, and back in the 1990s following the merger of Penguin and Ulverstone local Councils, a dedicated effort was made to restore the cemetery burial records.^[8] Checking the cemetery map with the records and headstones eventually found publication in the Group’s publication: Penguin Cemetery old and new sections.^[1] About this time community volunteers with materials donated by Central Coast Council installed the onsite map and its shelter. An Arts Tasmania grant of $3,500 a year later enabled erection of entry gateposts and plot marker plaques.

Recent Research

Penguin’s 1915 Mystery ‘John Doe’

2006 saw renewed interest in the cemetery, sparked essentially by the chance discovery of a 1915 ‘John Doe’ burial in the records.^[9] Buried at the back edge of the cemetery, side-by-side with six other pioneers buried by the state, the discovery generated community interest, which resulted in researching the seven burials and erecting individual gravestones for each.^[10]

Research suggests the mystery person may have been Jeremiah or Michael Clifford, an Irishman in his 40s.^[11] The most comprehensive account of the circumstance of his death comes from the state-wide newspaper: The Mercury, under the heading “A bush tragedy – Dead Body Of Man Found – Gunshot Wound To The Head – Supposed Case Of Suicide”.^[12] The case for his presumed identity rests on the Police Gazette records.^[13][14] The remains are still unidentified.

Much is already published on Penguin’s heritage-listed cemetery.^[15] This has generated investment in showcasing it as a tourist magnet, including a dedicated small internal garden in memory of the tens of unnamed babies buried in the old section.^[16][17][18]

References

One of the Cemetery’s More Unusual Monuments