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LONE GRAVES

Other Name CASHMORE Location Old Tannery Road CAVENDISH, Southern Grampians Shire File Number 1624 Level Stage 2 study complete

[1/2] 23642 Copy of 4477 Lone Graves [2/2] 23642 Copy of 3928 Lone Graves

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The two lone graves, apparently the only Internments in a cemetery reserve 2.5kms south of Cavendish, are of the infant children Eliza and Viola Donelan. The former died in 1875, the latter in 1886. Both were aged one year. Their parents, Robert and Bridget Donelan ran the Cherry Wood or Karabeal Inn, about 12kms south-east of Cavendish on the road to Dunkeld. Robert Donelan had purchased an allotment immediately adjacent to the cemetery reserve south of Cavendish in 1872. Other than this proximity, it is not known why the infants were buried where they are rather than in the public cemeteries at Cavendish or Dunkeld. Their parents are buried at the new Dunkeld cemetery. The graves are fenced, overgrown and in fair condition.

How is it significant?
The two lone graves are of historical significance to the Southern Grampians Shire.

Why is it significant?
The two lone graves are of historical significance as a reminder of the difficulty of raising children in isolated communities, as a link to an ordinary selector family and the transient settlement of Karabeal, and as a contrast to the more formal private cemeteries on squatting runs.