Australian Themes - marking the phases of life
NSW Theme - birth and death
Local Themes - Public hospitals, maternity hospitals, baby health clinic, midwives’ homes; nursing home, funeral parlour, grave furnishings, cemetery and memorial plantings.

Major cemeteries are located at Bingara and Warialda townships but a number of others are located throughout the Shire.  These vary from single headstones located on private property to larger cemeteries.  These cemeteries have served their various communities for many years and are a symbol of mourning and commemoration.  It is probable that there are many old graves that have not been recorded on private properties.  

A study of the cemeteries will also provide names of monumental masons who once worked in the region.  As the railway developed then headstones could be brought from afar including the Hunter Valley and Sydney.  It is interesting to note that very early headstones were brought into the region by bullock wagon.  One local monumental mason was M.W. Hardy who were established in Narrabri, Gunnedah, Inverell and Moree by April 1908.  R.G. Gilmour and Co. acted as the company’s agent in Warialda.

Bingara Cemetery

Bingara general cemetery was dedicated on 12 March 1869 and prior to that date, burials took place on properties throughout the district.  By July 1898, the Bingara Municipal Council general portion of the cemetery was vested in the council for the past eighteen months.  The Church of England had determined that the Anglican portion of cemeteries was still vested in the Diocesan Trustees. 

The Warialda Standard described the general state of the cemetery early in July 1898- huge trees were growing in the enclosure with rank undergrowth covering graves.  Stock was destroying fences but Council stated it would shortly make an appeal for assistance for the carrying out of this work.   

Photograph 24 (above): Gineroi Cemetery, Blake & Wilson 2006  

In June 1935 a meeting of the various cemetery trusts formed a Bingara Cemetery Improvement Committee.  The executors of the late Henry Bull made ₤100 available to the cemetery from the estate.

Burials have also taken place ‘at Upper Bingara, Dinoga, Generoi, Keera, Bangheet, Garrambeil, Boundary Creek and other places’.  The Miller family owned Bangheet cemetery, located on the property ‘Derra Lea’ in 1997.

There are two cemeteries located at Upper Bingara: a European Cemetery and a Chinese Cemetery.

The European cemetery is located close to a small creek and only two headstones remain in this small cemetery.  The earliest headstone bears the following inscription: ‘Sacred to the memory of Laura Jane Hammond, who departed this life December 8th. 1853, aged 16 months’.  The second states: ‘Erected to the memory of Robert Wilson Turner, died February 1864 aged 8 months’.  

Today the Chinese cemetery is enclosed by a recently constructed timber post and rail fence.  Originally the area may have been cleared of trees but many trees have grown there in the last one hundred years.  The Bingara Historical Society estimates that up to 500 Chinese mined in the Bingara district.  The only evidence of their presence at Upper Bingara is the small Chinese cemetery, some scattered mine workings, water races and several stacks of stones.

There are no stone or metal markers to indicate the graves although a square small wooden post indicated a grave site in 1970.  No records have survived to indicate how many Chinese was buried at this site.