Bundaberg Cemetery

Genealogy and family history research take you to some interesting places. While researching my grandmother's father's Muir family, I discovered my great great grand aunt, Henrietta (Muir) Williamson immigrated to Australia with her husband, John Williamson, and their four children. They arrived in Brisbane on 6 May 1885 aboard the cargo ship, Waroonga.

Immigration Depot on William Street, Brisbane, Australia.
Drawing courtesy of an Ancestry.com member

Henrietta and her family lived in Queensland, Australia until their deaths. Henrietta's husband, John, died in 1919 and Henrietta in 1929. They are both buried in Bundaberg Cemetery. The original cemetery was originally established on land surrounded by current day Woongarra, Mayborough, Woondooma, and McLean streets. In 1868 Alexander Walker and Walter Adams envisioned the prosperous city of Bundaberg would soon encroach on the cemetery. They gazetted the land on which the current cemetery is located. The original cemetery was closed and the bodies were exhumed and reburied at either the General Cemetery or the Catholic Cemetery. Unfortunately, the records of the exhumations and burials before 1879 have been lost to the sands of time. Many of Queensland's founders are buried at Bundaberg in the monumental section.

John and Henrietta (Muir) Williamson's grave; photograph courtesy of an Ancestry.com member

Their son, who died in in 1908 at the age of 23 is buried with his parents.