A CENTURY and a half ago, a 13-week-old baby was the first burial at Mount Gambier’s Lake Terrace Cemetery.
Edward Hodge was the infant son of Thomas and Harriet Hodge of Caveton and was buried without a headstone – unceremonious, but not unusual for infant burials in 1868.
A plaque has since been installed beside the grave to recognise its significance and the now sprawling cemetery has been the site of around 10,000 burials over the past 150 years.
This Sunday the Mount Gambier History Group will commemorate the milestone number of years since the first burial by unveiling a second plaque.
“We think 150 years since the first burial here is worthy of commemorating,” Mount Gambier History Group member Lynn Lowe said.
“It is part of our town’s history.
“The first-class graves line the edges of most of the sections, they were the more well-to-do families and they quite often had up to eight burials in those big family plots.
“Edward Hodge’s grave is right near Dr Wehl’s grave – Wehl Street was named after him.
“Sadly he was buried alone and his family was buried at Millicent.”
A walk between the endless rows of gravestones reveals fascinating stories about local families and the history group has captured this in its Little Grey Walks booklet and guided tours.
“The Little Grey Walks booklet is a self-guided tour and we also offer guided tours,” Ms Lowe said.
“There are about 8000 headstones here and 10,000 burials – it’s a beautiful old cemetery and the wrought iron grave fences are quite unique.”
The history group has been involved in preserving the heritage-listed site since the early ’90s.
“We are the unofficial caretakers – the cemetery is owned and maintained by Mount Gambier City Council,” Ms Lowe said.
“We come up here and do research and find graves that need repairing.”
The commemorative event will start at 1pm on Sunday, with attendees encouraged to meet at the cottage by the main entrance.
“The mayor will be unveiling a plaque and we will have some descendants of various people here to cut a cake,” Ms Lowe said.
“Afternoon tea will be supplied by service clubs and we will have a couple of marquees set up and a historic display put together by Tony Bott.
“Weather permitting, we will run a tour of the cemetery at 2.30pm.”
