The Pioneer Cemetery, Busselton

Sources

No record of burials at the Busselton town cemetery were kept until shortly prior to the arrival of the Rev. Milward in March 1916. Nor were any records kept of the locations of the various gravesites. In consequence of this and as many sites were unmarked or had been marked with wooden crosses, etc. which decayed over time, on one occasion the grave-digger complained at having to dig five holes before he found a vacant space for a new burial.

The following list is an amalgamation of:

a) Transcriptions compiled in 1982 by K.F. Stewart from legible headstones in the cemetery cross-checked against the earlier (1929) St. Albertus'transcript from the Battye Library, Perth, Western Australia.

b) Transcriptions compiled independently in 1989 by Joyce Mort from headstones and additional resources, primarily Deaths Notices and Obituaries, etc. gleaned from local newspaper archives.

Stewart recorded that (in 1982) there were 45 unmarked wooden crosses, 14 graves with missing or illegible headstones and 207 legible headstones. In 1991 Mort recorded that 178 headstones remained with obvious signs of other burials such as brick or cement surrounds or kerbing and a number of wooden crosses. Some part of the original cemetery area now lies beneath the caravan/camping ground that adjoins its eastern boundary. None of the graves in that area are now marked or visible. A great many of the graves in the remaining cemetery area are also unmarked (or possibly were never marked) hence it is not possible to say that the following list is complete.
Although the cemetery was officially closed in 1930 a few later burials occurred on the deaths of people who had pre-purchased plots.