Old Busselton Cemetery Project

Project Overview:

Have you ever wandered past the Old Busselton Cemetery (Pioneer Cemetery) and wondered about its origins? Perhaps you have a relative buried there?

The Old Busselton Cemetery, located between Marine Terrace and Adelaide Street, was established in 1847 and formally gazetted in 1856. Many of the districts prominent families are buried there. The first recorded burial was Mr Patrick Hurley in 1858 and there are over 250 recorded burials - although 550 individuals have records associated with the cemetery. Burials ceased at the cemetery in the 1930’s.

Since 2009, significant progress has been made to conserve the cemetery in collaboration with the community. The grave sites have been cleared, overgrown vegetation removed and interpretive signage on the cemetery’s history installed. Some sites have additional information about individuals who are buried there. A map was also created to make it easier for visitors to identify where the gravesites are.

The next stage of the plan is to install new name tablets, as some of the current ones have incorrect dates and names misspelt.

Updating name tablets:

Over the last 12 months the City has been gathering names and information about the people who were buried in the Old Busselton Cemetery. Working with a group of volunteers and community groups, the number of people who have most likely been buried in the cemetery has grown. Initial records lists approximately 250 burials (as listed in the State Heritage Register of Heritage Places Assessment Documentation), during this process this number grew to over 1,000.

The Process:

There are several sources of information that have been used to identify and verify this information. These sources include:

• Burial books from Faulkingham Funeral Directors care of Mrs Annie Faithfull
• "Register of Burial" Burials 1886 - 1935, St Mary's Anglican Church, Busselton (referred to as the Vasse Burial List) 3519A/11 State Records Library
• Feedback from community engagement
• Busselton Family History Society Inc. website and lists
  1. Cemetery lists
  2. Deaths list
• Busselton Historical Society Inc
  1. Information taken from Court House Records
  2. Deaths by family compilations
• “Names of known burials in Marine Terrace Cemetery” compiled by Mrs Pat Snowdon and Mrs Anne Malarki in 1966
• “Old Busselton Cemetery” compiled by Marie Pavy and Leeanne Riordan in 1996
• Find A Grave website
• Trove for some of the new articles
• List supplied by the City of Busselton of Courthouse Records of Burials Busselton not recorded elsewhere
• Busselton Cemetery database for the early records of burials.

Each name was cross referenced using the free Online Index Search Tool on the Department of Justice website for the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages of Western Australia. Most of the names have been verified over several databases or lists.

Things to consider:

• dates may vary due to the date being the actual date of death or the date of the burial
• spelling of names can differ across lists
• names were sometimes illegible in official records
• some people where buried in Busselton "somewhere" but confirmation on location unsure
• While the City is confident that most of the names of people included have been buried in the cemetery, there maybe some who weren’t. We don’t know where the people might have been buried but this may have occurred with babies, infants and children, and people who didn’t have relatives etc.
• The Heritage Assessment Documentation records Alfred Smith aged 11 being the first burial in 1964. However, other records have show that there were two burials in 1859.

Descendants of Aboriginal and pioneering families, interested history buffs and the wider community are asked to please review the updated list, taking note of names and dates included. If you believe something may be incorrect, please complete the form below and submit evidence of the information you are querying.

The updated list of burial names can be found under 'Documents' on the right-hand side.

Consultation runs from 2 September 2024 - 18 October 2024.