HERITAGE NOOSA
HERITAGE NOOSA
Pomona Cemetery
DETAILS
Description
The Pomona Cemetery was first surveyed as a 10 acre (4 ha.) reserve in August 1896 by surveyor, Alfred Lymburner, on what was then called the Tewantin Road. The survey plan showed the reserve sitting on a ridgeline and noted that the terrain was thickly timbered with Mahogany, Bloodwood and Box trees. The cemetery was officially proclaimed in November 1896. The Queensland Cemetery Act of 1865 gave the Governor-in-Council the power to appoint trustees to hold land in trust for the purpose of a public cemetery and, in March 1897, Thomas Horsman, Michael Gearey, Henry Armitage Snr, William Martin and Eugene von Blanckensee were appointed as the cemetery’s first trustees.
Little is known of the early development of the cemetery, with the earliest reference to a burial in the cemetery being that of Henry Armitage Jnr in 1901. At times, maintaining the cemetery was difficult for the trustees with the Pomona Chamber of Commerce writing to the trustees in 1926 asking them to clear the long grass and overgrowth. During the 1930s Great Depression, the trustees wrote to the Noosa Shire Council requesting intermittent relief men to be made available to clean up the cemetery. Trustees invariably struggled to maintain small rural cemeteries due to a lack of funds. In 1954, the Pomona Cemetery came under the control of the Noosa Shire Council, at the request of the trustees. At that time, most of the Pomona Cemetery area had now been cleared of grass.
With changing community attitudes to interment, the Council had opened a lawn cemetery section by 1972 and had also decided to erect a columbarium for the interment of ashes at the Pomona Cemetery. An unofficial war graves section also existed at Pomona Cemetery by 1972 which the Council’s Cemetery Committee requested the Pomona R.S.L. relinquish and hand back to the Council.
Among the prominent early settlers of the district who are buried in the Pomona Cemetery are Eugene & Esther von Blanckansee and Jane McConnell (who were part of the Protestant Unity Group Settlement at Skyring Creek in 1895); Alexander Chapman (one of the first Councillors of the Noosa Shire Council); Arthur & Mary Anne Bull (among the first business people in Pomona); Michael Geary (who took up land in Pomona in 1898); and Franz Dreier (one of the earliest settlers of Kin Kin).
The Pomona Cemetery remains an active cemetery and continues to be a Crown reserve with the Noosa Council as trustee.
The Pomona Cemetery was first surveyed as a 10 acre (4 ha.) reserve in August 1896 by surveyor, Alfred Lymburner, on what was then called the Tewantin Road. The survey plan showed the reserve sitting on a ridgeline and noted that the terrain was thickly timbered with Mahogany, Bloodwood and Box trees. The cemetery was officially proclaimed in November 1896. The Queensland Cemetery Act of 1865 gave the Governor-in-Council the power to appoint trustees to hold land in trust for the purpose of a public cemetery and, in March 1897, Thomas Horsman, Michael Gearey, Henry Armitage Snr, William Martin and Eugene von Blanckensee were appointed as the cemetery’s first trustees.
Little is known of the early development of the cemetery, with the earliest reference to a burial in the cemetery being that of Henry Armitage Jnr in 1901. At times, maintaining the cemetery was difficult for the trustees with the Pomona Chamber of Commerce writing to the trustees in 1926 asking them to clear the long grass and overgrowth. During the 1930s Great Depression, the trustees wrote to the Noosa Shire Council requesting intermittent relief men to be made available to clean up the cemetery. Trustees invariably struggled to maintain small rural cemeteries due to a lack of funds. In 1954, the Pomona Cemetery came under the control of the Noosa Shire Council, at the request of the trustees. At that time, most of the Pomona Cemetery area had now been cleared of grass.
With changing community attitudes to interment, the Council had opened a lawn cemetery section by 1972 and had also decided to erect a columbarium for the interment of ashes at the Pomona Cemetery. An unofficial war graves section also existed at Pomona Cemetery by 1972 which the Council’s Cemetery Committee requested the Pomona R.S.L. relinquish and hand back to the Council.
Among the prominent early settlers of the district who are buried in the Pomona Cemetery are Eugene & Esther von Blanckansee and Jane McConnell (who were part of the Protestant Unity Group Settlement at Skyring Creek in 1895); Alexander Chapman (one of the first Councillors of the Noosa Shire Council); Arthur & Mary Anne Bull (among the first business people in Pomona); Michael Geary (who took up land in Pomona in 1898); and Franz Dreier (one of the earliest settlers of Kin Kin).
The Pomona Cemetery remains an active cemetery and continues to be a Crown reserve with the Noosa Council as trustee.
IDENTIFIERS
Subject (Keywords)Cemeteries
CONNECTIONS
LocalityPomonaHeritage ListingNoosa Local Heritage Register
Pomona Cemetery. Heritage Noosa, accessed 29/04/2025, https://heritage.noosa.qld.gov.au/nodes/view/25304
