Ipswich in Winter 2022

MODERN TECHNOLOGY TO REVEAL ANCIENT SECRETS

Ipswich’s oldest cemetery burials are being mapped for the first time through the use of ground penetrating radar. The innovative use of technology is part of a council project to redesign some of Ipswich General Cemetery that was razed by the Cemetery Trustee in the 1970s. Unfortunately, there are limited records of burials from this time. Graves in the historic Ipswich General Cemetery date back to the mid-1840s. Burials in the oldest part of the cemetery were organised into cultural and religious groups including a designated area for First Nations people who we do have some burial records of, from as far back as the 1880s.

Sadly, many of the headstones have been removed or destroyed when they were moved from their original location in the 1970s by cemetery trustees who cleared the site to reduce maintenance costs. There are also many unmarked graves and we want to hear from anyone who has any information around who may be buried there. The Ipswich General Cemetery Heritage Project will develop a conceptual design for a new area to re-house and integrate the existing memorials into a new landscape as well as to consider new internment opportunities for cremains.

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