Resting place

There were only ever three churchyard burial grounds in the ACT (the others are at Weetangera and St John's, Reid). These days people are buried in large multi-denominational cemeteries, and previously internments were in rough bush graves or small private cemeteries on properties.

The individual markers here are long gone, but the names of 18 people buried in the St Paul's Ginninderra burial ground are commemorated on a plaque, erected by the Southwell Family Society in 1995. There were probably more burials in the area, but there's no record of them.

[From the ACT Heritage Register]

Burials in St Paul's Burial Ground, Ginninderra
(References: Ferret & Murdock 1983; Canberra & District Historical Society files; Commemorative Plaque
on site, St Paul's Burial Ground; Cope, 2006)

Known European burials whose names appear on commemorative plaque:

EDGE, Ralph
Abode: Round Hill, Ginninderra
Died: 9th Sep 1872
Buried: 11th Sep 1872
Age: 80 years
Ceremony performed by Rev. Pierce Galliard Smith [*Rector of St John's]

SMITH, Anne
Abode: Ginninderra Creek
Died 24th Jun 1873
Buried: 26th Jun 1873
Age: 27 years
Ceremony performed by Rev. Pierce Galliard Smith
[*Died in childbirth; buried close to the church building; aunt of Marian Smith.]

GROCOTT, Robert [*labourer]
Abode: Charnwood
Died: 14th Jul 1874
Buried: 16th Jul 1874
Age: 79 years
Ceremony performed by Rev. Pierce Galliard Smith

GROCOTT, Hannah, Maria
Abode: Budellick, Ginninderra
Died: 6th Mar 1877
Buried: 7th Mar 1877
Age: 91 years
Ceremony performed by Rev. Pierce Galliard Smith

TINSLEY, Thomas
26th Dec 1881
Occupation: Shepherd

CAMERON, Janet Alexandria
3rd Nov 1883
Age: 2 years 8 months
Daughter of Charles & Margaret Cameron

CAMERON, ANN
17th May 1883
Age 79 years
Wife of Donald Cameron

CAMERON, Donald
1st Jul 1883
Age: 52 years
Husband of Elizabeth McDonald

WELLS, Charlotte
10th Apr 1884
Age: 64 years
Wife of Thomas

CAMERON, Elizabeth
22nd Jun 1885
Age: 42 years
Wife of Donald Cameron

BOLTON, Francis James
21st Jul 1885
Age: 8 months
Son of Joseph & Mary Griffith

CAMERON, Alexander
8th Mar 1886
Age: 51 years
Husband of Mary Ann Ryan

SUMNER, William
11th Oct 1886
Age 76

HOLLIGAN, Thomas
Abode: Ginninderra
Died: 25th Oct 1887
Buried: 29th Oct 1887
Age 74 years
Ceremony performed by Rev. Pierce Galliard Smith
[*Gored to death by a bull]

JONES, Thomas
Abode: Ginninderra
Died 9th Jun 1888
Buried: 11th Jun 1888
Age; 75 years
Profession: lawyer [*sawyer]
Ceremony performed by Rev. Pierce Galliard Smith

MORRIS, Henry
Abode: Hall
Died: 23rd Mar 1894
Buried: 25th Mar 1894
Age: 79 years
Profession: Shoemaker
[*Service read by A.M. Grant]

MORRIS, Lucy Ellen
Abode: Hall
Died: 22nd Sep 1898
Buried: 23rd Sep 1898
Age: 29 years
Service read by A.M. Grant [*Rev. P. Presswell]

STEAR, Charlotte Eliza
Abode: Majura
Died: 19th Sep 1900
Buried: 21st Sep 1900
Age: 2 years
Drowned in a well near her home
Ceremony performed by Rev. Pierce Galliard Smith

Others believed to be buried in St Paul's Burial Ground:

RYAN, (names unknown)
Buried: 4th Sep 1865
Father: Michael Ryan
Mother: Margaret Warren

MCPHEE, Hugh
1878
Occupation: Schoolteacher

DONALD, Sandy
1884

PLUMMER, William
18th May 1886
Age; 33
Son of Levi & Francis Guttridge

MCPHERSON, Jane Elizabeth [*MacPherson]
Died: 8th Jul 1886
Age: 7 years
[*Died at Wallaroo. Research carried out by Mr. Keith Kilby indicated that there were three children in the MacPherson family who died about the same time – two were buried underneath a tree in the garden of their home and the other in the Ginninderra cemetery.]

O'BRIEN, Bridget
Buried: 24th Jul 1886
Father: John O'Brien
Mother: Jane Daley

WALL, Agnes
Buried: 12 April 1883
Age: 64

Aborigines:
Two unknown Aboriginal people are believed to have been buried in or in the vicinity of the lower corner
of the block.

[* Information from The History of the Anglican Church in Ginninderra, 1821-1983, by Margaret Ferrett and Jenifer Murdock]

What lies beneath

On the corner of Copland Drive and Moynihan Street, Evatt, is what seems to be a vacant block of land. There's not much there - a few poplar trees, some more established than others, a few young eucalypts around the fence, and a lot of sparse, tussocky, weedy grass with a few blue and pink patches of tiny flowers. The only thing that you might find intriguing is the 'Historic Cemetery' sign along the Copland Drive edge.

I've been meaning to find out about it for ages, and I finally had the chance this weekend.

On 12 May 1861, St Paul's Church of England was opened on this site. At the time, it was part of Ginninderra Station, owned by the Campbell family. If you've been following this blog for a while, you might remember a park - Glebe Park - in the city, which was previously land donated to the Church of England to help support the rector of St John's, Reid. Well, there were three such parcels of land donated by the Campbells as glebes, and this what remains of one of them. The glebe consisted of 200 acres - 1 acre for a church, 2 acres for a burial ground, and the remainder to be leased to tenant farmers to provide an income for the church for maintenance and support.

St Paul's was a small rural church - 5m x 9m, with a tiny porch and a bell-cote. It was partly built in slab and weatherboard, and partly in lath and plaster, with a shingle roof and Gothic windows. The type of construction meant it needed constant maintenance.

From April 1862, the building also functioned as a school. The school attendance fluctuated, as was often the case in rural communities when children were required to help on the farm at times, and it could also be difficult to cross Ginninderra Creek in times of heavy rain. By 1870, the numbers had fallen to below 7, and the school closed.

In 1882, the village of Hall was established and became much more important to the local community than Ginninderra. St Paul's was still used until 1900, but in 1904 it was severely damaged  in a storm and left to deteriorate.

The suburb of Evatt was established in the 1970s, and part of the old burial ground was lost under newly constructed roads. Many of the old grave markers were made of timber, and had deteriorated and disappeared, and there was no record of the actual plots. This space was used as a construction parking area during the suburb's development.

A new parish of St Paul's Ginninderra was established in 1981, and the block was designated for a new church building. however, the parishioners decided not to go ahead with this, and initially met in the primary school at Melba, and more recently in the Spence primary school (which is no longer used as a school, and has a number of tenants apart from the church).

Reference: Most of the historical information given here is from the ACT Heritage Register.