Staffordshire Reef Cemetery

The Staffordshire Reef Cemetery is situated on allotment 5, section B within the township of Staffordshire Reef. The site was formally gazetted on the 4 December 1863 and is comprised of 10 acres. The cemetery contains the graves of local pioneering families, miners from the local diggings and more recently, former residents of the Staffordshire Reef district. It is bound to the north by Dales Road, to the west by Don McLeans Road, to the east by the Newtown - Berringa Road and to the south by a mature Pinus plantation. The cemetery is dominated by a particularly fine specimen of Pinus canariensis (Canary Island Pine). The Staffordshire Reef Cemetery does not show the elaborate landscape planning and planting of the other cemeteries in the shire such as the Scarsdale, Cape Clear and Linton Cemeteries. Instead, the cemetery is comprised of clusters of graves widely distributed across the sparse 10 acre reserve, with large spaces in between.

How is it significant?

The Staffordshire Reef Cemetery is of historical, social and architectural (aesthetic) significance to the Golden Plains Shire.

Why is it significant?

The Staffordshire Reef Cemetery is of historical significance as an enduring record of those who have lived and died in the community, as a reflection of the passing phases, ways of life and death, particular events, and as documentary evidence of the districts prosperity and hardships.

The Staffordshire Reef Cemetery is of social significance for reflecting the customs and tastes of the community, for reflecting different religious values, and for reflecting different economic and social status. It is also an important place for passive recreation.

The Staffordshire Reef Cemetery is of architectural (aesthetic) significance for its range of tombstones, memorials and iconography reflecting the aesthetics of different periods and groups within the community.

Group

Cemeteries and Burial Sites

Category

Cemetery Gates/Fences