This webpage is a post to the Rootsweb aus-vic-ne (north east) mailing list with information on the Tintaldra Cemetery. This post is presented here with the permission of the contributor David Weatherill.
David is a cemetery historian and can be contacted at David
[AVNE] TINTALDRA CEMETERY - 05/10/2008 04:58:02
Good Morning;
A draft of my research into the old Tintaldra Cemetery. Any further help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
David
TINTALDRA (Wermatong) CEMETERY
Tintaldra is situated on the Murray River beneath the Snowy Mountains, approximately 440 kilometres north east of Melbourne. It is a grazing and
pastoral district, approximately 23 kilometres north of Corryong via Towong.
The cemetery at Tintaldra (also known as Wermatong) was originally on private land owned by the family of George Kepler Jeffcott. It was a small
area comprising of one acre, three roods and thirty-nine perches and used by the family. George Jephcott along with his parents, Edwin Jephcott
and Susanna (Sansome) and other family members arrived from England in the early 1860s. George Jephcott married Frances McDougall Forsythe in
Melbourne in 1902 and had three children.
Upon the death of George's mother, Susanna Jephcott in 1908, she was buried in the family's private cemetery vault on 29 September, 1908. As
the burial was on private land, approval should have been sought for this burial from the Health Department. As this approval (certificate of
burial) was not obtained there was an investigation by the local police into the burial. As a result of the investigation, George Kepler Jephcott,
offered the land set aside as the private cemetery, to the Crown, to be a public cemetery. It took from July, 1909 until late 1923 for the
cemetery to be approved and gazetted as a public cemetery.
In July, 1909 the Health Officer, Towong Shire undertook a review of the cemetery and recommended to the Shire secretary, shire of Towong,
that "I consider it an excellent site for a burial ground and beyond fencing and a little clearing will require very little work to render
it suitable as a small public cemetery." He also noted in his report that there was very little likelihood that there would be any other
settlement close to it in the near future. The location of the cemetery was noted in his report as being 12 miles from Walwa and four miles
from the Tintaldra Hotel on the Walwa Road. The Health Officer also appended a rough plan showing the location of the cemetery to his report.
It then took fourteen years for the title to the land to be finally handed over, and changed, to the Crown. On the 16 October, 1923 the Office
of Lands and Survey submitted to the Governor in Council to have the cemetery approved. This was undertaken on 17 October, 1923 and the cemetery
was gazetted on 24 October, 1923.
During this time other family members were buried in the family vault. These were:
* Edwin Jephcott who died at The Pines and was buried on 21 April, 1911. (Husband of Susanna).
* Frances McDougall Jephcott, aged 37 years, who died at Moonee Ponds, and buried on 24 April, 1914 (wife of George Kepler).
Upon approval of the cemetery, the following Trustees were gazetted on 19 March, 1924
* Robert Hanna of Walwa.
* Charles Mansell Coysh of Walwa.
* Thomas Coysh of Tintaldra.
* Sydney Wheeler Jephcott of Ournie, NSW.
* George Kepler Jephcott of Tintaldra.
Two more burials occurred in the cemetery following the gazetting of it.
* Olive Jean Jephcott, aged 25 years on 25 January, 1933 (daughter of George Kepler and Frances).
* George Kepler Jephcott, aged 76 years who died at Fitzroy, on 9 March, 1935 and was cremated on 11 March, 1935 at the Melbourne Crematorium.
His ashes were buried in the family vault.
It is believed there is one more family burial in the cemetery, but to date this has to still be proven.
Although it was finally gazetted as a public cemetery it would appear that the only burials in it were members of the Jephcott family.
A search of the records for the cemetery did not locate any gazetted notice of discontinuance of burials in the cemetery, not of the cemetery
being no longer approved. It would appear that the cemetery is still a public cemetery on Crown land. The last note in the cemetery file was
that the cemetery was listed for inspection on 20 August, 1964 but no record of this inspection taking place or a report of the inspection, has been found.
In a recent discussion with a family member still living in the area it was noted that the old headstone on the family vault had collapsed many
years ago and the pieces were currently in the shed of his property.
A cadastral map from the Department of Sustainability and Environment notes this cemetery still shown just off the Murray River Road, (Ref: P205073)
from Tintaldra to Walwa.
There was another small burial area associated with the old Catholic Church in Tintaldra that held members of the Vogel family.
References:
* "Tintaldra (Wermatong) Public Cemetery", File: H-CEM-526, Department of Human Services Cemeteries and Crematorium Services.
* Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria: death certificates.
* Department of Sustainability and Environment [DSE] Historic Places Section; Cemetery Datasheet and Cadastral Plan.
* Discussions with Jephcott family member and Vogel family member, Tintaldra.
David Weatherill
Last updated on 01 September 2021
