Toowong Cemetery

Story

Toowong Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery on the corner of Frederick Street and Mt Coot-tha Road, Toowong, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was established in 1866 and formally opened in 1875. It is Queensland's largest cemetery and is located on forty-four hectares of land at the corner of Frederick Street and Mount Coot-tha Road approximately four and a half kilometres west of Brisbane. It was previously known as Brisbane General Cemetery. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 31 December 2002.Although still used as a cemetery, it is a popular place for joggers and dog walkers, with its over-hanging fig trees and winding pathways. The Friends of Toowong Cemetery conduct tours through the cemetery as well as providing a series of self-guided themed walks through the cemetery. Guided "ghost tours" are conducted through the grounds of the cemetery on Friday and Saturday nights.HistoryBureaucratic procrastination, manoeuvring and public discontent colour the early history of the Brisbane General Cemetery at Toowong and contributed to the decades of delay in providing a new General Cemetery for Brisbane in the second half of the nineteenth century.The first cemetery serving the small penal settlement that was Brisbane between 1825 and 1842 was located on the (present day) northern approach to the William Jolly Bridge, bounded by Skew Street, Saul Street, Eagle Terrace and Upper Roma Street. It was here that soldiers and convicts were interred but was considered unfit for the burial of children. One soldier's four children were buried in a brick crypt in an area at North Quay near Herschel Street.