Contributed by Alan McLean
WHROO, in open forest six kilometres south of Rushworth, has been quite deserted. No original buildings are now to be seen in the once thriving gold town. One remnant is a lonely but beautiful old cemetery in a clearing.
Visitors to Whroo are sometimes surprised to come across the old burial ground, as they explore the remnants of the local diggings. Though it has been there officially since 1860, and burials were made on the site prior to its registration, there has been little to indicate its history, and the clues it offers about life and death during the mining period and in the decades which followed.
That changed this month. A traditional cemetery information board was unveiled by the Whroo Cemetery Trust, with the generous financial support of the Rushworth Community Bank.
Local timbers have been supplied by Ted and Wally Jones of Rushworth, and a display board prepared by signwriter Karl Devlin of Stanhope, have been used to allow district residents and visitors to see a little of the story of the peaceful bush location. The last burial was in 1971, after the passing of Mrs Mary Le Roy. The cemetery has not been available for burials for many years but was only officially closed by the Victorian Government in December 2021.
Cemetery Trust chairman Ken Bock, who has ancestors buried at Whroo, said, “We are very pleased to welcome Professor Miles Lewis to perform the unveiling, as his great-grandfather was John Lewis, co-owner of Whroo’s famous Balaclava mine.”
John Lewis was an early cemetery trustee, and donated 150 numbered steel markers known as trefoils, some of which remain in position on graves.
The Trust welcomes any interest from people who may like to become either Trust members, or a “friend of the cemetery”, which involves a couple of mornings annually to tidy the site, and to discourage the Chinese scrub which often appears in spring.
“With the cemetery closed, and no income from burials, we are really managing an open-air museum, an important part of the district’s heritage,” Mr Bock said.
The cemetery information board was unveiled at an event on Sunday, 22 May, and visitors are encouraged to visit the site to learn more about local history.
