Westgarthtown Lutheran Cemetery
Located on the corner of German Lane and Gardenia Road in Lalor, the Westgarthtown Lutheran Cemetery was established soon after the settlement began in 1850. With over 230 confirmed burials, it is a source of much useful historical information and is itself a rich part of the story of Westgarthtown.
Confirmed Burials (including Ashes)
Click on family names to discover more.
ADAMS |
Birth |
Death |
|
Sylvia Dorothea (née Ziebell) |
08.02.1900 |
14.04.1990 aged 90 |
AMPT |
|
|
|
Ian Ralph |
26.07.1933 |
11.11.2012 aged 79 |
ANDERS |
|
|
|
Peter Olaf |
11.05.1943 |
01.03.2015 aged 71 |
BARGLING |
|
|
|
Augusta Ernestina (née Kreitling) |
09.06.1868 |
09.12.1935 aged 67 |
|
Hilda Mary |
|
25.01.1917 aged 20 |
BARWALD |
|
|
[ |
Edmund |
14.07.1912 Vershnitza, Ukraine |
14.11.1988 aged 76 |
Olga (née Marchuk) |
26.12.1916 Dubniki, Ukraine |
05.04.2005 aged 88 |
BEENCK |
|
|
[ |
Rudolf Heinrich F |
03.10.1919 |
21.04.1967 aged 47 |
Anna Minna Gertrud (née Baden) |
05.12.1922 |
18.08.2004 aged 81 |
BENGTSSON |
|
|
|
Val (née Barwald) |
|
13.06.2000 aged 62 |
BERNHARDT |
|
|
[ |
Friedrich Andreas |
|
07.03.1904 aged 92 |
Anna Rosina |
|
06.07.1887 aged 74 |
BORRMANN |
|
|
|
Gottfried |
|
16.04.1882 aged 58 |
|
Johannes |
|
06.11.1872 aged 5 years |
|
William |
23.09.1870 |
11.04.1901 aged 30 |
CARNEGIE |
|
|
|
Agnes Amelia (née Zimmer) |
|
28.06.1897 aged 33 |
|
Agnes Beatrice |
|
11.04.1911 aged 15 |
CAULLEY |
|
|
|
Dr Darrell Norman OAM |
|
20.09.2017 aged 78 |
COMIN |
|
|
|
Frederica |
|
24.01.1857 aged 30 |
DAU |
|
|
|
Maria (née Winter) |
|
26.07.1861 aged 20 |
EWERT |
|
|
|
Hanna Elisabeth Sophie (née Ihlenfeldt) |
19.08.1802 |
09.09.1869 aged 67 |
[ |
Carl (Christian Friedrich Daniel) |
13.07.1833 Törpin, Pomerania |
16.03.1896 aged 62 |
Maria (née Rosel) |
|
11.12.1894 aged 55 |
[ |
Frederick Daniel |
07.12.1876 |
22.12.1926 aged 50 |
Florence E. (née Anderson) |
25.03.1884 |
27.04.1972 aged 88 |
|
Mary Magdalene |
07.01.1881 |
09.07.1882 aged 18 months |
|
Daniel Gustav Adolph |
09.02.1875 |
12.05.1886 aged 11 |
|
Carl Albert |
07.01.1881 |
23.11.1887 aged 6 years |
FALK |
|
|
|
Rosina Catherine Fredericka (née Seeber/Borrmann) |
05.07.1841 |
14.07.1916 aged 75 |
FIEDLER |
|
|
[ |
Ilse |
02.12.1920 Kobitz |
25.06.2000 aged 79 |
Karl Ernest Otto |
09.06.1919 |
23.11.2011 aged 92 |
|
Klaus [A] |
|
|
FRAHM |
|
|
|
Ida |
|
23.02.1859 aged 20 months |
FRANK |
|
|
|
Ingeborg M. E. (née Gosberg) |
27.11.1914 Wuppertal |
26.02.1972 aged 57 |
FUHLBOHM |
|
|
|
Ruth (née Ziebell) |
06.01.1899 |
21.02.1991 aged 92 |
GERLACH |
|
|
[ |
Bruno G. A. |
19.02.1907 Rixdorf |
14.06.1971 aged 64 |
Edith H. |
30.11.1904 Podlask |
29.12.1984 aged 80 |
GOSBERG |
|
|
[ |
Gustav Adolf |
16.02.1888 Wuppertal |
22.11.1970 aged 82 |
Magdalene E. L. (née Friedrich) |
17.02.1891 |
17.08.1985 aged 94 |
GRAFF |
|
|
[ |
Johann |
|
09.06.1888 aged 86 |
Johanna (née Hobrach) |
|
19.08.1887 aged 84 |
|
Johann Heinrich August |
14.06.1867 |
05.03.1889 aged 21 |
|
Wilhelm Heinrich |
12.12.1873 |
02.08.1875 aged 19 months |
|
Emma Mary Amelia |
|
31.05.1875 aged 3 |
|
Stillborn son |
|
07.07.1875 |
[
[ |
Auguste Pauline (née Reu/Roy) |
20.09.1846 Niedewitz, Prussia |
29.05.1876 aged 29 |
John (Johann August) |
|
05.06.1901 aged 57 |
Salome (née Metzenthin) |
|
24.12.1904 aged 46 |
|
Heinrich August |
|
18.06.1889 aged 5 |
|
Annie Louisa |
|
20.05.1890 aged 1 |
|
Freda |
|
08.08.1925 aged 1 day |
[ |
Catherine (née Storey) |
|
18.07.1936 aged 63 |
Charles Henry |
12.12.1868 |
29.10.1942 aged 73 |
|
Tasman Able Jensen |
11.08.1908 |
29.10.1942 aged 34 |
GREABEL |
|
|
|
Christian Wilhelm |
|
22.05.1859 aged 37 |
GRÜTZNER |
|
|
|
Anna Louise |
24.09.1856 |
17.10.1871 aged 15 |
|
Heinrich Julius |
26.07.1854 |
13.12.1882 aged 28 |
|
Marie Louise (née Gründel) |
|
28.08.1890 aged 54 |
[ |
Charles John |
|
08.09.1929 aged 63 |
Elizabeth Augusta (née Proposch) |
12.07.1867 |
05.01.1906 aged 38 |
GUNTHER |
|
|
|
Frederick Christopher |
07.03.1807 Glendelin, Demmin, Pom. |
25.06.1870 aged 63 |
GUTKNECHT |
|
|
|
Ruth (née Lumpreiksch) |
09.04.1934 Memelland |
26.11.2005 aged 71 |
HARKER |
|
|
|
Ward |
|
01.12.2015 aged 93 |
HAUER |
|
|
|
Curt Edward Herman |
24.05.1903 Grossbiessnitz, Silesia |
11.10.1972 aged 69 |
KARSTEN |
|
|
[ |
Heinrich Friedrich Jacob |
29.10.1821 Wismar |
24 or 25.09.1885 aged 64 |
Marie (née Ziebell) |
15.11.1823 |
20.12.1919 aged 96 |
|
Johanna Christiane Friedericka |
18.11.1853 |
28.02.1855 aged 16 months |
KÖRNER |
|
|
|
Helmut Georg |
01.12.1927 Bankau, Silesia |
01.03.2004 aged 76 |
KNORR |
|
|
|
Charles |
16.11.1854 |
10.04.1856 aged 1 |
KREITLING |
|
|
[ |
Johann Andreas |
|
19.01.1915 |
Alwina Sophie (née Karsten) |
08.06.1845 |
30.07.1916 aged 71 |
|
Sophia Maria |
24.11.1873 |
11.04.1874 aged 4 months |
|
Adolph |
|
18.02.1904 aged 28 |
KRIEGER |
|
|
|
Alfred |
12.04.1883 |
08.06.1886 aged 3 |
KURTZMANN |
|
|
|
Christian |
|
03.04.1855 aged 8 days |
LANG |
|
|
|
Hannelore (née Adrion) |
04.11.1924 |
30.09.1996 aged 71 |
LEW |
|
|
|
Alik [A] |
17.12.1941 Belarus |
24.01.2001 aged 49 |
LÜBBERT |
|
|
|
Sophia (née Unmack) |
|
16.10.1871 aged 57 |
LUEDERS |
|
|
|
Horst Peter |
28.11.1929 Hamburg |
10.08.2006 aged 76 |
MAHRO |
|
|
|
Paulina |
|
10.05.1859 aged 4 months |
MALTZAHN |
|
|
[ |
John |
|
08.05.1897 aged 83 |
Sophia (née Schlunz) |
|
12.05.1898 aged 76 |
|
Louis |
06.06.1852 |
17.01.1930 aged 77 |
|
Bertha |
28.02.1856 |
02.03.1935 aged 78 |
[ |
Christian Caspar |
|
01.04.1869 aged 47 |
Maria Sophia (née Schlunz) |
11.06.1830 |
14.06.1891 aged 61 |
|
Ernest William |
|
03.12.1939 aged 75 |
|
Alwina |
28.11.1860 |
01.12.1870 aged 10 |
[ |
Charles |
|
18.08.1919 aged 65 |
Annie Elizabeth (née Schultz) |
|
06.08.1936 aged 70 |
METZENTHIN |
|
|
[ |
Carl August |
|
18.08.1901 aged 86 |
Johanne Friedericke (née Weniger) |
|
11.05.1898 aged 77 |
MOORE |
|
|
|
Arthur Charles |
|
16.08.1867 aged 7 months |
NEBEL |
|
|
[ |
Johann Georg Christian |
18.12.1791 |
02.09.1877 aged 85 |
Anna Dorothea (née Schulze) |
20.02.1794 |
29.10.1877 aged 83 |
[ |
George Christian Ernst |
11.09.1818 |
19.06.1893 aged 74 |
Fredericke (née Born) |
18.08.1829 |
06.06.1915 aged 85 |
|
Anna |
03.04.1859 |
15.04.1867 aged 8 |
|
Hermann |
01.06.1856 |
19.08.1868 aged 12 |
[
[ |
Martha (née Heiner) |
21.10.1866 |
12.03.1899 aged 32 |
William |
16.08.1857 |
04.02.1924 aged 66 |
Agnes Ellen (née Hosie) |
|
19.09.1957 aged 82 |
|
George Ernest |
14.01.1893 |
09.06.1947 aged 54 |
[ |
Frederick John |
10.12.1868 |
25.10.1931 aged 62 |
Hannah Elizabeth (née Falk) |
25.01.1877 |
23.04.1949 aged 73 |
|
Auguste Wilhelmina |
|
15.08.1967 aged 79 |
|
Albert Herman [A] |
12.04.1894 |
12.09.1983 aged 89 |
OLDENBURG |
|
|
|
Christian Hermann |
|
1890 aged 2 |
|
Carl |
|
22.02.1923 aged 36 |
PARKS |
|
|
|
Diana [A] |
21.08.1961 |
01.07.2004 aged 42 |
PELKA |
|
|
|
Elizabeth |
20.04.1945 |
18.09.2007 aged 62 |
PETERS |
|
|
[ |
Louisa (née Ziebell) |
21.01.1828 |
14.03.1856 aged 28 |
Daniel |
|
21.08.1876 aged 55 |
|
Carl Heinrich (Henri) |
|
25.10.1857 aged 18 months |
[
[ |
Alice (née Wilson) |
|
24.01.1889 aged 28 |
Julius |
10.02.1854 |
12.04.1917 aged 63 |
Clara |
|
01.08.1901 aged 37 |
PETTIT |
|
|
[ |
Stanley [A] |
30.04.1915 |
26.6.2001 aged 86 |
Bertha Clarice (née Ziebell) [A] |
03.12.1910 |
19.6.2004 aged 93 |
PROTT |
|
|
|
Decima (née Ziebell) [A] |
06.09.1913 |
27.10.2003 aged 90 |
RENNER |
|
|
|
Elizabeth |
|
05.06.1857 aged 16 days |
|
Johanna |
10.12.1858 |
31.12.1858 aged 21 days |
ROBERTSON |
|
|
|
Olive Elsie |
18.01.1914 |
04.02.1997 aged 83 |
|
Ian Charles |
14.03.1936 |
22.10.2002 aged 66 |
ROSE |
|
|
|
Anna Mary |
31.08.1875 |
28.08.1877 aged 2 |
|
Minnie |
|
04.04.1879 aged 2 |
ROSEL |
|
|
|
Emma Christiana |
13.09.1869 |
11.02.1870 aged 5 months |
|
Johanna Christiana |
??.03.1871 |
05.04.1871 aged 4 weeks |
SANDMANN |
|
|
|
Johann Traugott |
|
01.09.1860 aged 34 |
SCHRÖDER |
|
|
|
Gunter R |
12.08.1929 |
04.03.1966 aged 36 |
SCHULTZ |
|
|
[ |
Johann Gottlob |
12.02.1788 Halbau, Upper Lusatia |
20.10.1875 aged 87 |
Marie (née Kluge) |
25.08.1790 Wellersdorf, Lwr Lusatia |
06.08.1875 aged 84 |
[ |
Gottlieb Ernst |
10.02.1835 Wellersdorf, Lwr Lusatia |
06.12.1914 aged 79 |
Henrietta Christiane (née Siebel) |
19.02.1842 Gramschutz, Silesia |
08.02.1911 aged 68 |
|
Emma Louise |
|
17.06.1873 aged 6 months |
|
Minna Caroline |
|
27.10.1948 aged 64 |
|
Selma Auguste |
|
04.02.1951 aged 70 |
|
Albert Alexander |
|
11.06.1943 aged 68 |
|
Elizabeth Marie |
|
11.09.1973 aged 95 |
[ |
Leslie Ronald |
08.10.1912 |
17.10.2002 aged 90 |
Sylvia Dorothea (née Adams) |
14.06.1926 |
26.04.2014 aged 88 |
SCHUSTER |
|
|
|
John |
Germany |
17.12.1871 aged 29 |
SEEBER |
|
|
|
Rosina Catherina (née Elsasser) |
27.05.1806 Rossach, Württemberg |
29.05.1871 aged 65 |
[ |
John Christian Ludwig |
14.06.1834 Rossach, Württemberg |
03.07.1904 aged 70 |
Johanna (née Wuchatsch) |
01.03.1846 Särka, Saxony |
12.05.1886 aged 40 |
|
Johann Christian Friedrich |
07.08.1865 |
21.04.1867 aged 20 months |
|
Elizabeth Johanna |
04.09.1867 |
18.11.1928 aged 61 |
|
Emilie Rosine |
17.10.1880 |
29.08.1886 aged 5 |
|
Marie Magdalene |
19.10.1869 |
01.09.1911 aged 41 |
|
Benjamin |
04.05.1883 |
11.02.1959 aged 75 |
|
Phillip |
|
22.07.1870 aged 8 days |
|
Phillip |
|
09.04.1872 aged 1 |
|
Margaret Alice |
15.10.1875 |
19.04.1879 aged 3 |
|
Laurence Charles Hopetoun |
07.07.1893 |
11.08.1894 aged 13 months |
|
Ada Florence |
14.02.1880 |
14.09.1894 aged 14 |
|
Phillip |
|
29.05.1888 aged 4 |
[ |
Christian |
|
27.11.1902 aged 78 |
Sophie (née Seitz) |
04.05.1831 |
08.06.1915 aged 84 |
|
Johann Gottlob |
01.09.1860 |
02 or 21.05.1880 aged 19 |
[ |
Charles Frederick |
|
19.09.1942 aged 78 |
Emma Louisa (née Nebel) |
23.08.1860 |
19.04.1942 aged 81 |
SEITZ |
|
|
|
Eduard James [A] |
27.08.1940 Gogalia, Romania |
03.01.1977 aged 36 |
SIEBEL |
|
|
[ |
Johann Gottlob |
30.12.1812 Zauchau, Silesia |
02.10.1877 aged 64 |
Christiane (née Neumann) |
26.04.1819 Rettkau, Silesia |
24.09.1898 aged 79 |
|
Anna Dowlera |
|
19.12.1855 aged 1 month |
|
Johann Gottlob |
05.12.1857 |
01.04.1858 aged 4 months |
|
Johann Gottlob |
|
14.03.1859 aged 24 days |
|
Johann Friedrich |
17.07.1860 |
18.11.1860 aged 4 months |
|
Annie Maria |
|
02.02.1863 aged 22 days |
|
Wilhelmine Louise (née Nebel) |
18.08.1862 |
05.06.1890 aged 27 |
|
Tollis |
16.05.1904 |
25.07.1904 aged 10 weeks |
SLOAN |
|
|
|
Glen |
21.09.1949 |
16.11.1951 aged 2 |
SMITH |
|
|
|
Linda Louise (née Ziebell) [A] |
05.05.1908 |
12.04.2000 aged 91 |
STEINIGER |
|
|
[ |
Pastor Ewald Herman Otto |
04.04.1901 Linden au der Ruhr |
16.04.1964 aged 63 |
Annemarie (née Kraemer) |
05.08.1902 Hilchenbach |
29.10.1999 aged 97 |
|
Johanna Gertrud (née Gerhardy) |
21.12.1937 Linnich, Germany |
11.08.2004 aged 66 |
|
Wolfgang [A] |
21.05.1932 Stuttgart |
20.12.1976 aged 44 |
STOFFERS |
|
|
|
John Henry |
|
01.03.1869 aged 69 |
STÖRTZER |
|
|
|
K. A. Werner |
19.02.1938 |
16.03.1970 aged 32 |
UNKNOWN |
|
|
|
Stillborn child |
|
by October 1850 |
UNMACK |
|
|
|
Emuel Theodore |
|
15.02.1887 aged 13 weeks |
|
Gilbert Heinrich Friedrich |
27.07.1875 |
02.02.1876 aged 6 months |
|
Sophie Caroline |
16.06.1876 |
07.02.1877 aged 6 months |
VAN WINGERDAN |
|
|
|
Conrad |
Netherlands |
03.06.1873 aged 35 |
VOCKENSOHN |
|
|
|
Agnes (née Wuchatsch) |
??.08.1849 Hamburg |
22.07.1870 aged 21 |
|
Alfred Ernest |
|
09.05.1878 aged 4 |
VOLL |
|
|
|
Peter Joseph |
|
17.06.1871 aged 66 |
WARD |
|
|
|
Emily Caroline (née Winter) |
14.10.1859 |
14.01.1921 aged 61 |
|
Lorraine Raya (née Lew) |
05.03.1958 |
04.08.2011 aged 53 |
WASER |
|
|
|
Elizabeth (née Baumgarten) |
23.08.1832 |
20.04.1905 aged 72 |
|
Charles Frederick William |
|
16.08.1869 aged 6½ years |
|
Mary |
02.06.1859 |
24.01.1860 aged 8 months |
WINTER |
|
|
[ |
Frederick Julius |
10.05.1810 |
24.01.1866 aged 55 |
Marie Catherina (née Techel) |
08.08.1818 |
13.08.1898 aged 80 |
|
Heinrich |
|
18.05.1856 ‘a few hours’ old |
|
Emma Bertha |
24.04.1857 |
12.04.1858 aged 11 months |
|
Johann Friedrich |
02.11.1839 Neu-Buckow, Mecklenburg |
12.04.1891 aged 51 |
|
Carl August |
11.07.1851 |
09.05.1923 aged 71 |
|
Eliza |
|
31.03.1935 aged 83 |
|
Heinrich Carl |
10.03.1861 |
27.10.1904 aged 43 |
WUCHATSCH |
|
|
[ |
John |
08.04.1802 Särka, Saxony |
29.09.1884 aged 82 |
Magdalena (née Bartsch) |
02.07.1825 Särka, Saxony |
27.09.1903 aged 78 |
|
Emma |
19.10.1857 |
14.04.1898 aged 40 |
|
Christina |
23.07.1862 |
19.03.1935 aged 72 |
[ |
Charles |
16.01.1860 |
05.07.1946 aged 86 |
Elizabeth Martha (née Proposch) |
01.02.1876 |
01.09.1905 aged 29 |
[ |
Norman Charles |
21.07.1902 |
29.11.1978 aged 76 |
Muriel Jean (née Dunn) |
20.03.1918 |
23.12.2007 aged 89 |
[ |
Johann |
07.10.1838 Särka, Saxony |
30.09.1892 aged 53 |
Johanna (née Graff) |
02.02.1841 |
15.08.1923 aged 82 |
|
Carl Peter |
26.09.1871 |
11.11.1872 aged 13 months |
|
Adolph Charles |
24.09.1877 |
04.03.1878 aged 5 months |
|
Ernst Adolph |
13.09.1884 |
12.11.1889 aged 5 |
|
Henry John |
01.11.1866 |
10.01.1898 aged 31 |
|
Carl Herman |
05.04.1875 |
18.10.1935 aged 60 |
[ |
Joseph David |
17.11.1885 |
08.12.1968 aged 83 |
Marion Walker (née Cook) |
06.06.1882 |
05.01.1968 aged 85 |
[ |
William Albert |
28.01.1868 |
29.08.1948 aged 80 |
Emma Christiane (née Maltzahn) |
18.09.1867 |
27.05.1957 aged 89 |
|
Margaret Gaye (née Lohse) |
07.08.1943 |
23.04.2014 aged 70 |
YOUNG |
|
|
[
[ |
Linda (née Nebel) |
26.08.1897 |
10.01.1934 aged 36 |
Norman Rudolph |
26.10.1897 |
30.10.1990 aged 93 |
Winnifred Elsie Blazely |
09.08.1908 |
24.09.1973 aged 65 |
|
Wendy |
stillborn |
25.03.1946 |
|
Lois |
stillborn |
26.02.1948 |
|
Ernest |
stillborn |
10.10.1950 |
|
Jason |
stillborn |
25.02.1969 |
|
Norman William Louis Young [A] |
21.08.1925 |
11.11.2009 aged 84 |
ZEGERS |
|
|
|
Ralf |
01.01.1932 |
26.11.2006 aged 74 |
ZIEBELL |
|
|
[ |
Christian Levin |
09.12.1799 Brühl, Mecklenburg |
04.09.1882 aged 85 |
Sophia (née Oldach) |
28.05.1801 Kleekam, Mecklenburg |
03.12.1888 aged 87 |
[ |
August Friedrich Christian |
03.03.1838 |
06.12.1918 aged 80 |
Auguste (née Schleicher) |
|
08.10.1915 aged 75 |
[ |
Carl Heinrich Alfred |
23.08.1867 |
26.10.1940 aged 73 |
Dorothea (née Unmack) |
14.07.1873 |
14.12.1969 aged 96 |
|
Arthur Gottlieb August |
18.01.1876 |
11.02.1887 aged 11 |
[ |
Annie Emily (née Zimmer) [A] |
31.10.1912 |
28.12.1985 aged 73 |
Henry Christian [A] |
28.07.1911 |
14.09.1988 aged 77 |
|
Verona Lily [A] |
06.05.1901 |
06.05.1995 aged 94 |
|
John Christian |
|
25.02.1869 aged 9 weeks |
|
Julia Matilda |
|
26.02.1872 aged 5 months |
ZIMMER |
|
|
[ |
John |
|
21.09.1882 |
Annie (née Rosel) |
|
05.12.1878 aged 78 |
[ |
Michael |
|
13.10.1892 aged 69 |
Maria (née Graff) |
|
11.12.1894 aged 56 |
|
John Adolphus |
06.02.1859 |
10.07.1866 aged 7 |
|
Anna Maria |
01.12.1860 |
21.10.1901 aged 40 |
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Frederick Henry |
15.09.1870 |
12.11.1875 aged 5 |
[ |
Michael Henry |
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28.04.1937 aged 70 |
Emma Catherine (née Yann) |
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13.04.1970 aged 93 |
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Betty Lorraine |
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19.12.1929 aged 17 |
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Charles Henry |
11.05.1862 |
03.08.1931 aged 69 |
[A] — Indicates ashes that have been buried or scattered.
This list has been reconstructed by Robert Wuchatsch using various sources including death certificates, headstones and published death notices. If you have any enquiries, corrections or suggestions please contact enquiries@westgarthtown.org.au.
The story of the cemetery
Westgarthtown, 16 kilometres north of Melbourne, was first settled by German and Wendish immigrants in March 1850. Soon after, the site for a Lutheran church, school and cemetery was chosen on a centrally located basalt knoll. Over 165 years later, this small private cemetery remains open, although burials are restricted to members of the Thomastown Lutheran congregation and descendants of the original settlers.
The first interment at Westgarthtown, which was also known at times as Keelbundora, Dry Creek, Neu Mecklenburg, Germantown and Thomastown, was of an unknown stillborn child and had taken place by October 1850. Although no burial register for the cemetery survives, headstone or memorial inscriptions, death certificates, undertakers’ records, funeral notices, obituaries and memorial cards confirm over 230 burials. Interestingly, some birth dates on the memorials appear to be incorrect, different from those recorded in old baptism registers in Germany.
As the original settlers donated the land for the church, school and cemetery, each founding family —Franke, Graff, Groening, Gruenberg, Heyne, Kawerau, Knobloch, Maltzahn, Siebel, Timm, Waehner, Wanke, Winter, Wuchatsch, Ziebell and Zimmer — was allocated a burial plot. A pencil sketch plan, drawn on the inside of the small door in the back of the original altar, shows the location of 14 of the original 16 family plots. These numbered plots, in the northern half of the cemetery, run eastward from the Maltzahn graves in the north-west corner at Gardenia Road and German Lane to the Graff plot in the north-east corner. Separated by the pathway which connects the east and west pedestrian gates, the remaining plots stretch back to the Wuchatsch graves, near the western wall. If a settler sold his farm, the burial plot passed to the new owner.
The graves within the family plots are randomly placed with all headstones facing east. Several are enclosed by iron fences which were common in the nineteenth century. Most graves have marble headstones, although some are of black granite and surprisingly, there is one small bluestone memorial and another of redgum. Many inscriptions are in German with some in both German and English. There are a number of unmarked graves. Some would once have been identified by long-lost wooden memorials, while others were probably never marked.
Burials have also taken place outside the original plots. As well as the first landholding families, other Germans or their descendants from Westgarthtown or nearby Epping and Wollert are also interred here. Some members of the Trinity German Lutheran Church at East Melbourne are buried at Westgarthtown, including Pastor Ewald Steiniger, his wife Annemarie and other family members. Trinity’s German-born Pastor Steiniger, who served the Thomastown Lutheran Church from 1935-64, described the cemetery as ‘An idyllic setting in the Australian landscape.’ Although no longer surrounded by farmlands, it remains idyllic, surviving peacefully within modern Australian suburbia.
The cemetery’s memorials record the passing of those of all ages. Many people, such as Johann and Johanna Graff, Johann and Sophia Maltzahn, George and Dorothea Nebel, Johann Gottlob and Maria Schultz, Johann and Magdalena Wuchatsch, Christian and Sophia Ziebell and Johann and Johanna Zimmer lived long and productive lives before being laid to rest far from their birthplaces in Germany. Johann Gottlob Schultz had been born in 1788. While medical reasons are given for most of these deaths, some are just attributed to ‘old age’.
A considerable number of burials were those of adults whose lives were tragically cut short by illness or accident. Pulmonary consumption or tuberculosis claimed sisters Martha Wuchatsch and Augusta Grützner within six months of each other in 1905/06. John Schuster was killed in 1871 when thrown from a horse on Ziebell’s farm; Henry Grützner drowned on his family’s farm in 1882; and Marie Ewert died in 1894 following a waggon accident at Northcote.
There were also many burials of infants or young children, victims of dysentery, diphtheria and typhoid, or misadventure such as drowning. Six Siebel infants died before they were six months old; three Unmack children before they were more than six months old; and three Graff and three Wuchatsch children before their sixth birthdays.
Maintenance in the cemetery is today undertaken by the City of Whittlesea, but prior to 1993 it was the responsibility of the church trustees, most notably Henry Ziebell, who died in 1988. Another trustee, Norman Young, dug many of the more recent graves, most of which required blasting and back-breaking work to remove solid rock. Many years before his death in 1990, Norman dug his own grave, then refilled it with dirt. Today’s graves are now dug much more quickly and easily with backhoes.
In 2002 replacement timber gates were installed by the City of Whittlesea. Broken or vandalised memorials were also restored with funds provided by descendant families and a grant from the Federal Government. Further repairs were made after an old Monterey pine fell and damaged several memorials during a storm in 2005.
Some pines, planted during the 1870s, have recently been replaced by trees grown with seeds from the old ones. The Italian cypresses, which line the main entrance from German Lane, are also believed to date from the 1870s. As well as native lightwoods and sheoaks, a variety of indigenous and introduced species of flowering plants grow within the cemetery.
The Westgarthtown Lutheran Cemetery, Lutheran Church and reserve are included on the Victorian Heritage Register.
Map of the cemetery
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