Located on a hill, two km’s from the site of the Goldrush in 1862, at the river mouth of the Teviot River, by 1905 gold mining was up to the Cemetery boundary along Ladysmith River. The mining families that had high value claims are reflected in the ornate headstones and surrounds on family plots. The poor or unlucky miners had simple wooden markers, long gone with only a hollow in the ground to mark their passing.
A row of eight schist headstones mark the graves of snowstorm victims found after winters on the Old Man Range 1870 to 1892. After the Coronal inquests at the nearby Teviot Courthouse, their graves were marked by simple schist slabs.
About seven Chinese miners are buried in the western corner of the Cemetery. Most elderly Chinese left for the Chinese community in Dunedin or returned to Canton Province, China. While here they had good racial relations with the predominating Cornish and Scottish Miners. They were respected for their industry, community relations, integrity and friendship.
The majority of names reflect the Cornish and Scottish families who settle here to become farmers, orchardists, or commercially involved. Five headstones reflect the high infant and youth mortality with epidemics and illness. A lot of family headstones comment on family members killed in foreign wars and on Mission field.
This cemetery’s Volunteer Trustees have great pride in preserving our forebear’s contribution to the Teviot Valley and elsewhere.
Contacts:
Arthur Moore 03 446 8292
Stuart Edgecumbe 03 446 8102
Brian McLean 03 448 9128
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