Boolboonda Cemetery, located 30 kilometres west of Gin Gin, was established in response to growth in the area following the discovery of copper at Mount Perry in the 1860s.
The site has a special association with the Boolboonda community demonstrated by its use as a burial ground for more than 100 years and is listed on Bundaberg Regional Council’s Register of Local Heritage Places.
Historical context
News about rich copper deposits soon spread and by 1870 a copper mine had been established and the town of Mount Perry grew quickly.
Within a year, there were five hotels, a blacksmith, several stores and a school.
Mining stopped in 1877 due to a fall in copper prices but reopened in 1884 following the competition of the Bundaberg-Mount Perry railway.
Settlements sprung up along the railway route, including Boolboonda, which became well known for its extensive tunnel, the longest unsupported rail tunnel in Queensland.
The Boolboonda community comprised railway workers and agricultural selectors who in particular enjoyed the easier access to the Bundaberg market and port afforded by the railway.
Miners who exploited local reserves of wolfram and molybdenite also lived in the area.
Boolboonda Provisional School opened in 1897 and became Boolboonda State School in 1909.
Physical Features
Boolboonda Cemetery is located in lightly timbered sloping bushland 300 metres north of the Gin Gin-Mount Perry Road close to Boolboonda Hall, surrounded by a rural landscape.
The first recorded burial in the Boolboonda Cemetery was Margaret Fulcher who was interred 7 March 1890, as noted in the Bundaberg Cemetery Record Search.
The marked gravesites are grouped together towards the centre of the site, the majority with brick or concrete surrounds and plates, and headstones consisting of mounted tablets.
There are three known but unmarked graves in the cemetery.
The cemetery also features a wall for the internment of ashes set on the western side of the site.
A memorial of two engraved upright granite tablets set on a rendered plinth commemorates James and Sarah Allen, early settlers of Boolboonda, who lived in the region in the early 1900s.
The memorial also lists their nine children and is placed in the centre of the cemetery amongst the gravesites.
James and Sarah’s young daughter Emily May Allen, who died in 1916 aged 10 months, is buried in Boolboonda Cemetery near the family memorial.
The cemetery continues to be used for burials and memorials by the local community.
As a heritage site, it is important in demonstrating the evolution of the region’s history, and as illustration of the religious and cultural patterns of settlement and life in the district.
Other news:
You can find a lot out in the Colonial Secretary Files. Early Surveying is important as is some names that get mentioned. On early surveys, Boolboonda is spelt that way. The mountain Peay itself was spelt Boolboondah.