Croydon Cemetery

On the Julia Creek Road, just south of the airfield, is the main Croydon Cemetery, gazetted in February 1889. Croydon Shire Council has erected an interpretive sign here indicating location of the various religious denominations within the cemetery. From 1890 to 1910, the gold output of the Croydon reefs was second only to that of Charters Towers. Hundreds of people came to the area for the gold. In many cases this was their final resting place, including 130 Chinese. At least three Chinese graves have been exhumed allowing the remains to be returned to China. There are also many children’s graves marked by small iron bedsteads. Many of the headstones were created by stonemasons Melrose and Fenwick of Townsville, along with Brisbane’s John Petrie and J H Simmons and Ernest Greenway from Sydney, descendent of colonial architect Francis Greenway. The first documented burial in this register is that of F.W. Kennedy on 5 January 1889. The use of shells as markers of remembrance is significant. Shells symbolise life and resurrection, referencing the depiction of Aphrodite (Venus) rising from the sea within an open shell. Scallop shells are symbolic of pilgrimage, referencing the pilgrimages to the gold fields.