{{Short description|Former cemetery in Queensland, Australia}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2015}} {{Use Australian English|date=September 2015}} thumb|Looking across the former Paddington Cemetery, circa 1870 The '''North Brisbane Burial Ground''' was a former cemetery in the Town of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was in the area now known as the suburbs of Milton and Paddington. It was also known as North Brisbane Cemetery, Paddington Cemetery and Milton Cemetery.
==Geography== thumb|Plans showing the redevelopment of the cemetery, circa 1914 The burial ground was located across four blocks bounded by Beatrice Street on the north, Hale Street on the east, Church Street on the south and the present-day Castlemain Street on the west. This land is now used as Lang Park stadium and Ithaca Swimming Pool and children's parkland (see plans).<ref name="maps">{{cite web|title=Showing the Old Paddington Cemeteries and the Present Reserves|url=http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/sites/default/files/Cemeteries_Visiting_our_Cemeteries_Plans_showing_the_old_Paddington_Cemeteries_and_the_present_reserves.pdf|publisher=Brisbane City Council|access-date=10 March 2015|archive-date=23 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923221509/http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/sites/default/files/Cemeteries_Visiting_our_Cemeteries_Plans_showing_the_old_Paddington_Cemeteries_and_the_present_reserves.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>
==History== [[File:Paddington Cemetery Brisbane 1917.tiff|thumb|Paddington Cemetery, 1917,<br />now underneath Lang Park]] The First Brisbane Burial Ground was established in 1825 when Brisbane was established as the Moreton Bay penal colony at present-day Skew Street (near the William Jolly Bridge northern endpoint). It was in use until 1843 when the North Brisbane Burial Ground opened.<ref name="qhr">{{cite QHR|31411|First Brisbane Burial Ground|700009|accessdate=1 August 2014}}</ref>
The North Brisbane burial ground was in use from 1843 to 1875, during which time up to 10,000 people may have been buried there.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dr Jonathan Prangnell|url=http://socialscience.uq.edu.au/jon-prangnell|publisher=University of Queensland|access-date=10 March 2015|archive-date=22 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150322153648/http://socialscience.uq.edu.au/jon-prangnell|url-status=live}}</ref> After 1875, the burial ground was closed and new burials were to take place in the newly established Toowong Cemetery.
Circa 1862 the Anglican Church established a mortuary chapel for the cemetery. The mortuary chapel was demolished in 1891.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Closed Anglican Churches|url=https://www.anglicanarchives.org.au/churches/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403003329/https://www.anglicanarchives.org.au/churches/|archive-date=3 April 2019|access-date=29 June 2020|website=Anglican Church South Queensland}}</ref>
The cemetery was flooded during the 1893 Brisbane flood.<ref>{{Cite web|date=1893|title=Flood map Suburbs of Brisbane sheets 1 and 1W left bank|url=https://gisservices.information.qld.gov.au/arcgis/rest/directories/historicalscans/flood_scans/flood-map-10chain-suburbs-of-brisbane-sh1-1w-leftbank-1893.jpg|publisher=Queensland Government|type=Map|access-date=28 June 2020|archive-date=28 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628011412/https://gisservices.information.qld.gov.au/arcgis/rest/directories/historicalscans/flood_scans/flood-map-10chain-suburbs-of-brisbane-sh1-1w-leftbank-1893.jpg|url-status=live}}</ref> thumb|Memorial reserve, Christ Church, Milton, 2005 In 1907, the Ithaca Shire Council began to plan to convert the cemetery, by then an eyesore for the community, into a recreational reserve. However, the council did not control the land, as individual religious denominations continued to have control of their respective burial grounds.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19369939 |title=Ithaca Town Council |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |date=29 October 1907 |access-date=11 March 2015 |page=6 |publisher=National Library of Australia |archive-date=3 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230903053225/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/19369939 |url-status=live }}</ref> By the 1910s, relatives were offered the opportunity to exhume and reinter deceased family members or to relocate their headstone or other monumental masonry. The first removals took place in 1913.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19874567 |title=Paddington Cemetery. |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |date=7 June 1913 |access-date=11 March 2015 |page=4 |publisher=National Library of Australia |archive-date=3 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230903053111/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/19874567 |url-status=live }}</ref> Over 500 headstones were removed into a memorial reserve, a small section of the Anglican section of the cemetery, adjacent to Christ Church. In 1914, it was developed as an athletics field called Lang Park and progressively redeveloped into Brisbane's major sporting stadium, Suncorp Stadium.<ref name="qhr2">{{cite QHR|15027|Christ Church|600252|accessdate=1 August 2014}}</ref>
During the Depression many of the headstones in the memorial reserve were removed or destroyed.<ref name="qhr2"/> In 2001, the development of Hale Street into a major traffic route resulted in the resumption of some of the memorial reserve and the remaining headstones were reorganised into an even smaller memorial park behind Christ Church (and are only accessible via the churchyard). The further development of Suncorp Stadium visually encroaches on the memorial park, its high blue glass walls reflecting blue light into the memorial reserve.<ref name="qhr2"/>
==Operation== The North Brisbane burial ground was not a single cemetery, but rather a collection of cemeteries operated by different religious denominations.
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{Citation | author1=McGowan, Glenys | title=Deterioration of Human Remains and Artefacts in the Cemetery Environment: A Study of Archaeological Materials Excavated from the Nineteenth Century North Brisbane Burial Ground, Lang Park, Queensland | publication-date=2007 | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/3780501 }}
==External links== {{commonscat-inline|Paddington cemetery, Queensland}} * {{official website|http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/facilities-recreation/parks-venues/cemeteries/historic-cemeteries/paddington-cemetery}} * {{Cite web |date=2021-11-24 |title=Graveyard Games – Lang Park Cemetery - Stories from the Archives |url=https://blogs.archives.qld.gov.au/2021/11/24/graveyard-games-lang-park-cemetery/ |access-date= |website=Blogs |publisher=Queensland State Archives}} * {{Find a Grave cemetery|2351453|Paddington Cemetery (Defunct) <small>a.k.a. Milton Cemetery, North Brisbane Cemetery</small>}}
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{{Cemeteries in Queensland|state= collapsed}}
Category:Cemeteries in Queensland Category:History of Brisbane Category:Milton, Queensland Category:Paddington, Queensland Category:Former cemeteries