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Pioneers MemorialPrint Page Print this page

08-May-2014 (Graeme Saunders)
08-May-2014 (Graeme Saunders)
08-May-2014 (Graeme Saunders)
16-December-2016 (Sandra Brown)
08-May-2014 (Graeme Saunders)
08-May-2014 (Graeme Saunders)
04-February-2015 (Chris McLaughlin)
04-February-2015 (Chris McLaughlin)
04-February-2015 (Chris McLaughlin)
08-May-2014 (Graeme Saunders)

Photographs supplied by Chris McLaughlin / Graeme Saunders / Sandra Brown
The monument commemorates the pioneer settlers who were buried in Wangaratta`s first cemetery.

The first European explorers to pass through the Wangaratta area were Hume and Hovell (1824) who named the Oxley Plains immediately south of Wangaratta.  Major Thomas Mitchell during his 1836 expedition made a favourable report of its potential as grazing pasture. The first squatter to arrive was Thomas Rattray in 1838 who built a hut (on the site of the Wangaratta RSL) founding a settlement known as "Ovens Crossing".

The Post Office in the area opened on 1 February 1843 as Ovens. The Ovens office, and the Kilmore office which opened the same day, were the fifth and sixth to open in the Port Phillip District and the first two inland offices.

The name Wangaratta was given by colonial surveyor Thomas Wedge in 1848 after the "Wangaratta" cattle station, the name of which is believed to have been derived from an indigenous language and meaning "nesting place of cormorants" or "meeting of the waters". The first land sales occurred shortly afterward and the population at the time was around 200. The first school was established by William Bindall on Chisholm Street with 17 students.

The vacant allotment in Faithful-street where several pioneers of Wangaratta were buried before there was a general cemetery has been fenced, and a monument erected to commemorate their memory. The control of the ground has been vested in the State school committee, and the garden will be laid out and maintained by school children. Nearly £100 has already been spent on improvements.
Age (Melbourne), 7 May 1926.

 

Location

Address:Faithfull Street, Pioneer Cemetery, Wangaratta, 3677
State:VIC
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -36.354952
Long: 146.329963
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
View Google Map

Details

Monument Type:Monument
Monument Theme:Landscape
Sub-Theme:Settlement

Dedication

Approx. Monument Dedication Date:1926
Front Inscription

           ERECTED
    To The Memory Of
   Those PIONEERS
Who Were Laid To Rest
             Here
IN WANGARATTA`S
FIRST CEMETERY

Each In His Narrow Cell Forever
                                       Laid
The Rude Forefathers Of The
                                    Hamlet Sleep

Left Side Inscription

William Bendall (sic)
First local schoolmaster
           1849

George Vincent
         1850
Father Of The Late 
   Jacob Vincent

Agnes Isabella Vincent
         1850

Sydney Alfred Larkin
         1850
      And Others

Source: MA
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au