A meeting of gentlemen resident at Richmond was held on Wednesday evening last, at St. Stephens's School-rooms, Richmond-hill, to receive the report of the deputation appointed to wait upon His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, with respect to the establishment of a cemetery at Richmond. D. S. Campbell, Esq., occupied the chair. The chairman stated that he, accompanied by Messrs. Green, Trenchard, Gill, Le Strange, Burnley, M.L.C., and Dr. Wilson, the gentlemen who formed the deputation, last Monday week waited on the Lieutenant-Governor, by whom they were most graciously received. At the interview, the great inconvenience and expense which the people of Richmond were at, in conveying the dead to the new cemetery, were explained to His Excellency, and that the present and growing population of Richmond required that a separate cemetery for their use should be established in the neighborhood; that the evil was felt most strongly by the poor, particularly by those who had but recently arrived in the colony, who were unable to meet the enormous expense of removing their deceased friends to so great a distance. The deputations pointed out to His Excellency the site they had selected for the proposed burial ground, which is in the Survey Paddock at Richmond. His Excellency approved of the site, but at the same time stated, that the present Act of Council which applied to the case, contained a provision, that no cemetery should be formed within a mile of any township, which would preclude the space selected from being appropriated to the object they had in view. He was, however, satisfied that the existing law was not applicable to the present state of the colony, and required to be amended; and added it was his intention, in the ensuing session of Council, to have the subject brought under consideration, with a view to make such alterations as might remedy the inconveniences complained of. He further stated that he would make a minute, that he approved of the site selected by the parties whom the Delegation represented, for the guidance of his successor, should he leave the colony before the matter was brought to a conclusion (1).
There was some debate in the community as to whether the Survey Paddock was a suitable site for the Cemetery, apart for the fact that it was less than a mile from the township, and this debate played-out in a series of letters written to the Editor of The Argus in November 1855. A man using the pseudonym Veritas wrote -
The spot of ten acres in the Survey paddock would have been a very fine site, and of a good depth of soil on the greater portion of it: it had been tried by the surveyor of the district and found to contain six feet of earth without meeting any obstruction, but he could not ascertain what greater depth it contained owing to the instrument being too short. This place would have allowed the friends of the dead of have carried the bodies to their last homes without the expense of a conveyance, from its nearness - which is a serious object to the poor at this period (3).
In response, C.R.P.A, wrote
It will be evident to you also, Mr. Editor, when I tell you that this fine site is a portion of Richmond Flat, over the greater part of which the well-known bluestone protrudes above the surface, and where it does not show itself thus palpably, it undoubtedly forms the subsoil, and extends to an unknown depth. How strikingly, therefore, does your correspondent "Veritas" show his sympathy for the poorer classes when he recommends that they should be compelled to pay the enormous cost of chiselling and blasting the graves in which to deposit their dead! (4)
Also in response to Veritas, Eneas MacKenzie wrote -
I copy the common-sense account of the long-longed for site from a letter received by the Richmond Committee from the Colonial Secretary's office, dated 11th May, 1851. It is thus: - "I have received the report of the Surveyor-General upon your application, from which it appears that that officer considers the site alluded to by the committee is wholly unsuited for a cemetery, the surface of the Survey Paddock consisting exclusively either of sandy alluvium within reach of flood, beds of trap fragments densely packed, or honey-combed clay, land very wet and of inconsiderable depth before the rock is reached."....Dr. Wilson stated to the meeting that, from the reports given in of the site by the surveyors it would seem to consist of clay, which in many parts was not six feet in depth; that it was a well-known fact in the colony that the effect of the sun in summer on clayey soils was to cause deep fissures, and, therefore, as such rents could be seen in the paddock, of considerable depth, he left it to the good sense of the meeting if such a site was appropriate for a cemetery. The miasma would be released and the living must then suffer by the poisonous effluvia from the dead. (5).
Towards the end of 1855, the same time that this debate was raging, another site was offered to the people of Richmond for their burial ground and this was land adjacent to the new Boroondara Cemetery in Kew -
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That should have been a satisfactory solution to Richmond's need for a Cemetery, albeit it was further away than the Survey Paddock, however by 1862 they still had not established a Cemetery on the site. There were two reasons - The Council decided that if they accepted the land, the cost of fencing it would be more than they would feel themselves justified in incurring, but they were of opinion that the Government would act wisely in reserving the land for cemetery purposes, as other cemeteries were rapidly filling up, and they might at a future time have to repurchase the land at a considerably advanced price (9). Secondly, and more importantly, Richmond Council felt the question to be a difficult one, as while they desired to retain the land, they were prevented by the Municipal Act from expending money upon it, as it was outside their boundaries (10). Essentially, the Government granted the Richmond Municipality the land but they were prevented from spending any money on it.
In the meanwhile, the people of Kew believed that Richmond should have their rights to the land cancelled and various suggestions were put forward for the use of the land - it could be used for recreative purposes, for a Botanical Garden or annexed to the Boroondara Cemetery. It was considered this an urgent matter as the piece of land in question was going to the bad very fast. Wood carters wore constantly taking timber from it, and the site would be a complete waste in a short time (11) and a fine reserve was being destroyed because no one had a proper control over it (12).
In August 1862, a deputation from Kew met with Mr. Hodgkinson, the Assistant Commissioner of Lands and Survey and Mr. Ligar, the Surveyor-General where the best course to adopt, it was suggested, would be to annex the land to the Kew Cemetery, which it adjoins, and to set it apart as a cemetery for the districts of Richmond, Boroondara, Kew, and Hawthorn; and it was further suggested that each of these districts should be represented on the board of trustees vested with the management of the cemetery (13).
In response it was reported that the existing Cemetery trustees were unwilling to have the proposed additions. They had already incurred a large outlay in mapping and planning out the grounds; and the proposed increase would very much interfere with the arrangement. At present Richmond had nothing to complain of, the cemetery being open to them as well as to the people of Boroondara at the same charges. That in fact both Collingwood and Richmond had already availed themselves of the accommodation offered by the trustees. Mr. Stevenson also remarked that under the present arrangement one trustee for each religious body was appointed; and if the same plan was adopted at Richmond, of appointing one for each denomination, the number would be increased to eighteen, and would, he feared, be too large to work well. Mr. Judd objected to the additional land, on the ground that if the trustees were compelled to fence it, a rank herbage would spring up, and great danger would arise in summer time from fire, &c. At present the ground was kept pretty clear by cattle feeding on it, which could not well be done if fenced in (14).
The decision was made in November 1862 when the site formerly set apart for a cemetery at Richmond was temporarily reserved as a site for a Public Garden and for Recreation (15).
And with that, all hopes that the people of Richmond would have their own Cemetery were forever laid to rest.
I have created a list of newspaper articles from Trove on the Richmond Cemetery, access it here.
