09/12/2025
Interesting history of Mt Gravatt Cemetery
Just after the South Brisbane Cemetery was expanded, the trustees were well aware that it was only a matter of time before a lack of space for new graves became an issue again. There was no room left next to the cemetery for any more extensions, and in 1912 the South Brisbane City Council protested against any further additions to the cemetery reserve.
It seemed that the answer to the impending problem was to open a new burial ground as an adjunct to the existing cemetery, and in 1913 an opportunity arose for the trustees to obtain a large new parcel of land. James Toohey, an Irish immigrant who died in 1883 and was originally interred in the South Brisbane Cemetery, had owned a huge property near Mt Gravatt. After his wife Ann died in 1901, the family established a private cemetery on a rocky ridge of their land and James’ remains were reinterred beside Ann. That family burial ground was eventually used eight times. The Toohey land was left to James’ and Ann’s son Peter, but he ran up large gambling debts and in 1912 the property was resumed by Stephens Shire for rate arrears of £150.
Just over 702 acres of this land was purchased by the South Brisbane Cemetery trustees (Thynne, Connah, Davidson, Webster and Bennett) in 1913 for the very cheap price of £800. They then signed the land over to the Crown for the purpose of having it gazetted as a cemetery reserve. It was expected to open within a couple of years, and that the older cemetery at South Brisbane would be closed. Progress was slower than expected, however, no doubt hampered by the outbreak of the First World War. About 50 acres of the land had been cleared by 1916, but roads and other infrastructure were yet to completed. The envisioned design was to ‘represent the back of three leaves, the various roads being, as it were, the veins of those leaves. There would also be ‘numerous squares here and there’, with land reserved alongside each roadway for tree planting. Aerial images of the cemetery from the 1930s show that this leaf pattern was at least initiated but was abandoned later for a more conventional ‘block’ approach.
The cemetery officially opened on 1 July 1918, and in August Mt Gravatt resident William Sherwood became the first person to be interred there. A newspaper at the time referred to the cemetery as ‘Toohey’s Paddock’. It was originally managed by the South Brisbane Cemetery trustees but came under Brisbane City Council control in 1930. Council purchased the site outright from the state government in October 1937.
T Olivieri_FOSBC, Trove and photo - Cross of Sacrifice at Anzac Memorial Gardens at Mount Gravatt Cemetery_1960s_Queensland State Archives
