FORMER SANDHURST CEMETERY

The site is the original cemetery of Bendigo, with evidence showing that a majority of the interments still remain in situ today. As the site contains the remains of Bendigo's first non-indigenous settlers who came to the area during the first gold rush, the site is considered to be of high historic value.

Although the cemetery now lies under metres of earthen fill, it is clear from the documentary evidence that the fill was placed directly over the graves. There is evidence that the majority of the interments were never re-interred at another cemetery. Therefore the remaining graves now lie intact at the base of the earthen fill, in the position they were originally interred.
The surface of the site is in poor condition, with the entire original surface features destroyed. However subsurface it appears to be in good condition, with the earthen fill placed over the top in effect protecting the intact graves below.
The site comprises a former early settler cemetery with interments still in place, all surface evidence of the cemetery having been destroyed and the majority of the former cemetery now lying under metres of fill under a carpark. This is a rare occurrence in Victoria, with only a handful of similar sites know, the most notable being the Old Melbourne Cemetery underneath the Queen Victoria Market carpark. Therefore the overall scientific significance rating is high.

The site is considered to have high social values, as it is consecrated ground containing the remains of the earliest settlers of Bendigo. It also represents the optimism and hardship of the early days of Bendigo, the names of those interred revealing a broad segment of society who lived and died during the short time the cemetery was in operation.

Group

Cemeteries and Burial Sites

Category

Cemetery/Graveyard/Burial Ground