Touring the Toowong Cemetery

The Friends of Toowong Cemetery give a monthly historical tour, and Jeff and I went. 

This is the largest cemetery in Queensland at 200 acres and it was established in 1866.

 In colonial times there were 35 burials a day here. Brisbane was a dangerous place to live back then.

It's in pretty sad shape despite the removal of hundreds of worn, broken headstones. It's so hilly, I'm not surprised it's been hard to keep up. (For those who don't know, I've always been interested in cemeteries and try to visit these old ones whenever I can.)

If you look at the grass aisle on the left side of this photo, you can get an idea of how steep the hills are. Of course the rich and powerful are the ones with the big monuments at the top of the hill.

 These are the two oldest headstones in the cemetery, the graves were moved here from the prison colony. The foot stones are original and were used to mark the outline of the grave.

The larger tomb is Edwardian-era. The remains are not in the stone casket, but buried like all the others. (These were popular because you could put a really long inscription on top.)

Some people started putting the headstones flat on the graves, instead of waiting for them to fall over.

The view from the ridge at the top of the cemetery, looking toward where we live.

I  have to say, Council Bluffs' old cemeteries are much nicer.