[saved copy of Bruce Sugars local history of Moggill (now unreachable)]

 The early pioneers of Moggill were not unlike the early pioneers all around Australia. They all faced many hardships and had to struggle with a totally new way of life quite different from the lifestyle they had led in their homeland.
The women, in particular would have found the conditions difficult. However, undaunted they took their place beside their menfolk and slowly the families began to prosper.
The early pioneers were farmers or timbergetters. Later, others became miners in the nearby coal mines. Whilst many pioneers came to settle, others came to speculate with the land. Many of these speculators moved on either to follow their fortune in the early gold rush or to settle elsewhere.
Today, many of the pioneers and later settlers are to be found buried in the forgotten Moggill Cemetery. The cemetery , hidden down a bush track, just off Moggill Road, can be found immediately before the modern boom suburb of Bellbowrie. The stately gums stand as silent guardians over the many forgotten graves.
    History Church Grave Yard First Burial Sanction
    Resumption Trustees Brisbane City Burial List

The History of Moggill Cemetery


As the people buried in Moggill Cemetery have their history, so too their resting place. One hundred and forty years have passed since the first recorded monument was placed in Moggill Cemetery. Since that time approximately eighty monuments have been erected. The last being recorded in 1971. Sadly, due to neglect, vandals and a Council ‘clean up’, only seventeen remain.

The cemetery is sited on subdivision 2 of portions 7 & 8 in the County of Stanley, Parish of Moggill. Joseph Lewis was the original owner land of the land. Joseph arrived in Brisbane in 1849 and purchased portions 7 & 8 on 22 March 1851.

Church Grave Yard


There is sufficient evidence to support the belief that Moggill Cemetery started as a church grave yard, circa 1855. It is known that there was a chapel in Moggill before the Methodist Church was built in 1868, the exact position being unknown. However, several clues have been found.

Mary Ann Wright (nee Shield) was 11 when she settled with her family in Moggill c. 1856. She described the original chapel in her diary. She writes, “the chapel was made of slab, split from the tree with nice wide cracks in it. Any denomination could preach in it. When there was not minister, an old resident named Lumsden used to preach. Often he would pause in his sermon and say, ‘Bobbie, the cockatoos are in the corn’.” Lumsden’s comment about the cockatoos in the corn, tells us the location of the chapel had to be near his property at the end of Lather Road.

The vital information is found in a clause in a conveyance between the Moreton Bay Building Society and William Fryar, dated 22 November 1858. It states, “Save and except the half acre or thereabouts of cleared land fenced in portion of above land situated within a few yards of the present temporary chapel together with a right of road...over the land of the said Joseph Lewis...for the us of the people using such land...forever”.

I believe we can safely assume that the first chapel in Moggill was built prior to 1856 on the land of Joseph Lewis and Moggill Cemetery was originally a church grave yard.

The First Burial


It is believed that George Mounser, who accidentally drowned at Moggill on 4 March 1855, was the first buried in what we now know as Moggill Cemetery. It would be reasonable to expect someone to be buried near a chapel. Further to this, Ann Roper (nee Lewis) was buried in Moggill Cemetery (1856) and her father, Joseph was buried there in 1858.

Sanction


Moggill Cemetery was sanctioned as a cemetery under the ‘Cemetery Act of 1865’.

Trustees


At Rockhampton, 23 June 1921, the Governor, Sir Matthew Nathan, ordered that the land described (subdivision 2 of portion 7 & 8 as shown on plan S1.745) “shall be permanently reserved and set apart for a cemetery”. He also stated that, “the land shall be placed under the control of the person mentioned hereunder, as trustees: John Anstead, John Bird, Maurice William Doyle, Norman Charles Robert Sexton, and Frederick Charles Sugars”. (Government Gazette, 25 June 1921, p 2011).

Resumption


The Moggill Cemetery continued as such until the 21 February 1922, when the land was resumed by the Crown. (Certificate of Title, no. 270863)

Brisbane City


Brisbane was declared a city in 1924. A further six years passed before the Governor, Sir Thomas Herbert Goodwin, passed control of Moggill Cemetery over to the Brisbane City Council (Government Gazette, 21 July 1930, p. 42)

The first recorded burial in the Brisbane City Council’s Register for Moggill Cemetery was that of Thomas William Bainbridge in 1932. The last burial recorded was that of John Bird in 1982.

Burial List

A list of those known to be buried in Moggill Cemetery. Information taken from death certificates, headstones and burial register.


  
  

    
Emily Ann Roper	       	1856
Joseph Lewis		1858
Roper Child (unnamed)	1862
Elizabeth Sugars	1865
George Sugars		1871
Job Twine		1877
Donald Campbell		1877
Walter George Sugars	1879
Ann Cumberland Twine	1879
Joseph Hallett		1881
Joseph Hallett Jnr	1881
Dougald Currie		1882
John Pook		1882
Dugal Currie		1883
John Dugal Currie	1885
Bertha Carolina Holz	1888
Robert Currie		1889
Robert Owens		1892
John Anstead		1893
Marion Campbell		1893
Margaret Bainbridge	1895
Ann Doyle     		1897
Lydia Currie		1897
John Doyle		1898
Robert Sexton		1898
Elizabeth Owens		1899
Frank Twine		1900
James Shield		1901
Thomas Currie		1903
Rosina Gibson		1903
Margaret Currie		1903
Alan Campbell		1904
William John Finlay 	1905
Thomas Makepeace	1906
Mary Bainbridge		1906
Mark Shield		1906
George Edward Bird	1907
Daisy Currie		1907
Hannah Makepeace	1908 

    
Ann Pook	  	  1908
Isabella Shield		  1908
Edith May Stock		  1909
Mary Finlay		  1909
Susannah Anstead	  1910
Thomas Makepeace	  1906
Ann Jane Hallett	  1911
Sophia Sugars		  1914
Thomas Sugars		  1915
Ann Roper		  1915
Robert Bower Bainbridge	  1915
William Leonard Shield	  1918
Graham Bird		  1919
George Sexton		  1923
Thomas William Sexton 	  1929
Thomas William Bainbridge 1932
Beryl Ivy Black		  1932
Charles Lather		  1934
Frederick Charles Sugars  1934
John Bird		  1935
Myrtle Sugars		  1936
John Leslie Baker	  1938
Dougald Bainbridge	  1938
Anna  Wilson		  1940
Brian Robert Stanley	  1940
Samuel Gibson		  1941
Sarah Currie		  1941
Edwin Bird		  1941
Annie Black		  1941
John Currie		  1941
John Modral Baker	  1942
Janet Ann Bainbridge	  1942
John Stock		  1943
John Thomas Baker	  1945
Alice Kate Westaway	  1946
Elizabeth Randall	  1947
John James Gibson	  1949
William Henry Westaway	  1949
Henry George Mitchell	  1951 

    
Amelia Hooper		1952
John Gibson		1953
Rose Elizabeth Sugars	1953
William Sugars		1954
Edward Westaway		1954
David Moffitt		1954
Isabella Brown Anstead	1955
Minnie Baker		1956
Ellen Elizabeth Sugars	1957
George Bird		1959
Herbert Ernest Westcott	1959
Annie Matilda Bird	1960
Emily Olive Stafford	1960
William Henry Black	1960
Evaline Sophia Sugars	1963
Patrick Boyle		1964
Emily Jane Bird		1964
Marion Bainbridge	1965
Margaret Bainbridge	1965
Joseph Thomas Anstead	1968
Albert Cumberland Twine	1968
Edith Ellen Twine	1968
Robert James Bainbridge	1971
John Bird		1982 

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Moggill - History
This page created and maintained by 
      Bruce Sugars (b.sugars@mcauley.acu.edu.au)
Last updated 16 January 1997
Copyright ? 1996 by B. 
      Sugars