McLeod St Pioneer Cemetery, Cairns, Qld, Australia - Worldwide Cemeteries on Waymarking.com

The Pioneer Cemetery located on the corner of McLeod and Grove Streets and the Cairns railway was established in 1877 and on 22 December 1916 a new cemetery in Martyn Street was opened, following which, burials in the McLeod Street cemetery were restricted to those in family plots. The last burial took place in 1949, and the cemetery was officially closed.
Among those buried at the McLeod Street cemetery included the first mayor of Cairns, Richard Ash Kingsford; Cairns' medical pioneer, Dr Edward Koch; men who died during construction of the Cairns to Herberton Railway; and a beche-de-mere fisherman who had been associated with Trinity Bay prior to the establishment of Cairns. The surviving headstones record people from all levels of early Cairns society - professional, business, clerical, political, mercantile - and the cosmopolitan nature of early Cairns is reflected in the range of nationalities, including English, Irish, Scottish, Japanese, Javanese, Chinese, Indian, Italian, Bulgarian and Swedish.
The cemetery contains over 2500 graves, many of these are yet to be located. Sub-surface graves, identified with the use of a metal detector locating grave number markers, have each been marked with a small concrete plinth. The plinths incorporate brass plaques inscribed with the name of the deceased, year and place of birth, year of death, last place of residence and occupation, if known.

City, Town, or Parish / State / Country: Cairns Approximate number of graves: 2500 Cemetery Status: Inactive Maintained Cemetery Website: Not listed

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