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DEADMANS GULLY BURIAL GROUND

Location CAMPBELLS CREEK-IRISHTOWN ROAD IRISHTOWN, MOUNT ALEXANDER SHIRE File Number 608444 Level Registered

[1/2] 1 deadman's gully burial [2/2] deadmans gully burial ground

Statement of Significance

Primary historical records on Burying Flat Cemetery are scant. The cemetery's origins are undoubtedly linked to the great Mount Alexander alluvial goldrush of 1852-54. Like the other small cemeteries linked to this rush, the Burying Flat Cemetery would have closed c1857. The cemetery on elevated ground above the junction of Nuggetty and Fryers Creeks. The gold seekers in the frenzy for gold choosing a convenient patch of ground where gold was unlikely to be found but one which was totally unsuitable for their own hygiene.

The Burying Flat Cemetery is of historical, archaeological and scientific importance to the State of Victoria.

The Burying Flat Cemetery is historically important due to its association with a key event in Victoria's history and a defining moment in the development of Australia's character and culture. The cemetery is associated with the first significant rush to the district.

The Burying Flat Cemetery is historically and scientifically important as a very rare artefact of Victoria's greatest gold rush. A comprehensive archaeological survey of the Castlemaine district undertaken in 1989 concluded that ' because of the ephemeral nature of structures and technology (predominantly, timber and human sweat) employed in the early gold-rush days there is little physical evidence of the intensity of activity and cathartic social experience sustained by the study area during the rush years. The significance of this site is also derived from its setting: in an area of the goldfield which was renowned for robberies and murders.