Western Downs Cemeteries

The Myall Remembrance Park was initiated as a project by the Lions Club of Dalby and is administered by Western Downs Regional Council. 

The lawn cemetery incorporates columbarium walls, a rose garden and the Garden of Remembrance for cremated remains. A dedicated children’s burial area was established in 1978. There is also the Lullaby Garden area, a small semicircle area offering a quiet contemplation area and memorialization for babies pre-term to 12 months, no remains are interred in this area. 

The addition to the Myall Remembrance Park Services Memorial Wall, or remembrance wall, in 2015, pays tribute to deceased members of Australian Armed Services. It provides an area to peacefully reflect and honour those who have served our country. 

The first interment in the lawn cemetery took place in 1967, with the first interments of ashes in the columbarium and the rose garden recorded as 1969 and 1978 respectively. It was not until 2015 that the Garden of Remembrance was used for the interment of ashes. 

The Myall Remembrance Park is open for interments. 

Myall Remembrance Park Map(PDF, 119KB)  

The cemetery was opened in 1871 and was under the control of a Board of Trustees until 1905 when, due to difficulties in finding citizens willing to be trustees, responsibility for the cemetery was passed to Dalby Town Council. 

Gravesites are generally arranged in rows and there are areas without any marked graves particularly in the northwest corner, large sections of the eastern part and also in between marked graves. There is a wide variety of grave ornaments reflecting funerary customs from the 1870s until 1980. Most graves are surrounded by a concrete border, some with decorative corner elements, and are covered with a plate; other grave surrounds include wrought iron fencing. Headstones include stelae in a variety of style, desk mounted tablets and a variety of crosses, some mounted on pedestals and tiered bases. The cemetery also includes some more elaborate monuments, including a stylised portal consisting of double Ionic fluted columns with ivy ornamentation supporting a decorative entablature with curved pediment.  

Council continues to maintain the cemetery which has been closed to new interments since 31 December 1980. Council’s resolution is to honour only grave sites that have been previously reserved. The need to close the cemetery to new interments was hastened by rising maintenance costs, the difficulties experienced with the cemetery layout and the lack of certainty of the location of unmarked graves. A survey was completed to mark locations of graves but due to the portability of the grave markers the accuracy cannot be guaranteed. 

The Dalby Monumental Cemetery is no longer open for interments. 

Dalby Monumental Cemetery Map(PDF, 113KB)

The current Jandowae Cemetery is not the first. The original cemetery was located in Market Street, only two blocks from the Church of England, the headstones and steel markers from the original cemetery were apparently removed and it is believed that developments have since been built on top of the site. As the town began to grow in the 1890’s, a new cemetery was proposed and it was surveyed in its current location, on the outskirts of Jandowae on the Old Rosevale Road in 1900. The earliest recorded burial was around 1900. The cemetery was under local trusteeship until 2009 when it was transferred to the Western Downs Regional Council for management. 

The cemetery has a monumental and lawn section with a columbarium wall for cremated ashes. There is a wide variety of grave ornaments reflecting funerary customs from the 1900’s until the present day. The graves are arranged in rows and most are surrounded by a concrete border and covered with a concrete plate. Other grave surrounds include wrought iron fencing and dressed stone borders. Headstones include mounted tablets, stelae and crosses. A lawn section is located in the north-eastern part of the cemetery and a columbarium wall is situated towards the centre. Close by is a memorial to the Rennick family, who arrived in Jandowae from Victoria in 1907, comprising a plaque and a bottle tree. 

The Jandowae Cemetery is open for interments. 

The Jimbour Cemetery has not been used since the early twentieth century. The earliest grave is listed as James Brown, who died on the 20th March 1857. The last internment appears to have been Richard Porter who died on the 7th July, 1905. Many of Jimbour’s early settlers are buried there. The Wambo Shire Council and Jimbour Station undertook a joint project to restore the cemetery after it fell into disrepair. 

Jimbour Cemetery is located on a cleared grassed site in slightly sloping terrain in farmland on the southern side of Jimbour Station Road approximately one kilometer northeast of Jimbour. A boulder with a brass plaque reading ‘JIMBOUR • HISTORIC • CEMETERY’ is located at the turn-off from Jimbour Station Road. The cemetery borders onto commercial premises including work sheds to the east and Jimbour Station, listed on the Queensland Heritage Register, is situated around 750 metres to the east. The names of the people buried in the cemetery including their age and date of death are listed on brass plaques attached at the front. Inside the fenced area are a number of marked graves the majority identified by a headstone only, although some gravesites are surrounded by rounded concrete borders and wrought iron fencing. Headstones feature stelae of a variety of shapes and sizes. It is fair to assume that the cemetery might contain a number of unmarked graves. 

Jimbour Cemetery is a privately run cemetery. For further information contact: 

The Condamine Cemetery was established around the time of rapid expansion of the town, from the mid-1850’s through to the mid-1860’s. The Cemetery has a monumental section and a section with rows divided by concrete strip. 

The oldest inscribed headstone is dated 1875, although a newspaper report states a burial in the ‘new’ cemetery on 25 May 1864. It is fair to assume there are a significant number of unmarked graves at the site. Wrought iron fencing and concrete borders are the predominant grave surrounds. Headstones include stelae in a variety of styles, mounted tablets and crosses. The monumental section is no longer open to new interments. 

The section established in the 1900’s, has a concrete strip dividing rows, and shows inscriptions dating from 1916 to present day. This section is open to new interments. 

The Condamine Cemetery is open for interments. 

It is unknown how many burials are in this cemetery and it is assumed the burials were mostly prior to 1964. There is a monument in the park naming some of those buried there. 

The Condamine Pioneer Cemetery is no longer open to new interments. 

This small cemetery is the earliest identifiable cemetery in Miles. It is pleasantly located on the flood banks of Dogwood Creek. The site is significant in that it was reasonably close to the first settlement area of Miles. It was used from the late 1870’s with several pioneering families of the region are interred in this cemetery. The Dogwood Creek Cemetery was abandoned in the 1910’s because of continual flooding but its last burial, which was for William Pitt, took place in August 1943 so that Pitt could be buried near his family. 

The cemetery lies on the eastern bank of Dogwood Creek with access via the Dogwood Creek Walking-track. A number of graves are surrounded by concrete borders and wrought iron fencing while other sites are identified by a headstone only. Headstones include desk mounted tablets, stelae and a number of crosses, most mounted on a tiered base. 

The Dogwood Cemetery is no longer open for interments. 

Downfall Creek Cemetery is situated within the grounds of the St Johns Downfall Creek Lutheran Church Guluguba, which was built in 1931. 

The Miles Cemetery was managed by the Maguire Family until late 1960’s or 1970’s, when the Murilla Shire Council took over its management. 

The cemetery incorporates a monumental and lawn section with a columbarium wall for cremated ashes. The monumental section is divided into four portions – Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist, Lutheran and Multi-Denominational. Inscriptions dating from 1912 have been identified in the cemetery while one earlier headstone, dated 1899, was probably relocated here from the old cemetery. There are a significant number of unmarked graves at the site. There is a wide variety of grave ornaments reflecting funerary customs from the 1910’s (with some headstones likely to have been moved here from the second cemetery) until the present day. Grave surrounds are predominantly concrete borders, some with decorative elements. Headstones include mounted tablets, stelae and crosses, some on tiered base. 

The lawn section dates from the 1950s. It contains almost 400 sites with plenty of room for expansion. 

A columbarium wall displays plaques from the 1960s. 

The Miles Cemetery is open for interments. 

Miles Cemetery Map(PDF, 121KB)  

The Miles Historical Cemetery is also known as Racecourse Road Cemetery and was established in c.1911 after concerns were expressed about the flood prone cemetery at Dogwood Creek. For several years it is apparent both were in concurrent operation. This cemetery contains burials between at least 1911 and 1970 and contains two extensive family plots, one of which is called the ‘Blackley Private Cemetery‘. Due to the rocky ground and difficulties experienced digging the graves; this cemetery was closed to new burials with the new Miles Cemetery opening in c.1919. 

Only two sections of the site show marked graves; a narrow rectangular area in the east along Racecourse Road and a small portion on the northwest corner with access from Hookswood Road. An interpretive panel inside the fence provides information about the cemetery including symbolism and stonemasons represented. 

Grave surrounds include concrete borders, some with decorative elements and metal piping and wrought iron fencing. Headstones include mounted tablets, stelae and crossed, some mounted on tiered base, and also more elaborate monuments. It is fair to assume that this section of the cemetery contains a number of unmarked graves. 

The northwest section, also referred to as ‘Blackley Private Cemetery‘, has graves arranged in a row along the fence line and features concrete and marble surrounds and plates, some with ornamentation. Headstones include desk mounted tablets and stelae featuring granite and black marble. There are two elaborate monuments; one consisting of a cylindrical shaped pedestal surmounted by columns supporting a cone shaped roof topped with a Celtic cross. The second monument comprises a large rectangular pedestal surmounted by a horse figure. 

The Miles Historical Cemetery is no longer open for interments. 

The Wandoan Cemetery was established in 1960, this perfectly encapsulates the enormous impact the influx of soldier settlers had on the town’s population from the mid-1950’s. Its size and scale, and general appearance relative to the original reserve, illustrates the development of Wandoan over the course of the twentieth century. 

The cemetery is located in pastoral land on the western side of the Leichhardt Highway approximately six kilometres northwest from the business centre of town. Wandoan Cemetery is a monumental cemetery originally divided into a Roman Catholic section and Protestant section, however, this is no longer strictly adhered to with the newest section being multi-denominational. The graves are arranged in rows and most sites are surrounded by a concrete border and covered by a concrete plate, some decorated with tiles and gravel. Headstones include desk mounted tablets and stelae of a variety of styles and material, including sandstone and marble. There are some timber crosses. The recent establishment of the second Wandoan Cemetery in 1960 is reflected in the style of the grave ornamentation. 

This Cemetery has two sandstone columbarium walls for the interment of cremated ashes. 

The Wandoan Cemetery is open for interments. 

Wandoan Cemetery Map(PDF, 99KB)

It is believed that the cemetery is located in the original town cemetery reserve. There is little information about the burials; it is believed that there are at least three grave sites, including that of a railway ganger killed in 1913 when the railway was laid from Miles to Juandah. The reserve – and its use – undoubtedly dates to the survey of the town. Two dates have been provided in research undertaken, it is likely therefore that the cemetery dates sometime after 1902, or 1913. Either of these dates reflect the slow growth of settlement in the region and the impact of the railway. 

The cemetery is located in bushland north of the town with access from Golf Club Road and the unsealed Arnold Street and has an interpretation panel which provides some information about some of the people buried here. Three gravesites are marked by metal pipe surrounds. It can reasonably be assumed that the cemetery contains unmarked graves. 

The Wandoan Historic Cemetery is no longer open to interments.