Gary; There is nothing in the cemetery Acts from 1850 to just recently that note anything about how a cemetery should be laid out. It would appear it was left up to the Trustees how they wish the cemetery to be set out. As the Trustees changed the initial set out it was kept or either changed. The big issue was in the records kept by the Trust - maps, cemetery plans and who was buried where. Also many of the records were lost over time re plans/locations. Of interest was that I was looking at a 10 acre cemetery in a small town where families took a "section" of the area for their burial area and you walked from area to area, sometimes quite a distance. As result there were large areas between each family section. There are a number where the cemetery is set out in religious denomination areas, usually graves in marked rows. Most small cemeteries I have researched seem to be that the person responsible for the burial went to the Trust and noted the burial to take place in this spot, or the Trust noted the spot. Usually no map of locations was kept. The 1890 Victoria Cemetery Act 10 July, 1890 [54-Vic-1072]notes in Section 48, (Page 161-162) "All burials within any cemetery under any law for the time being in force relating to public cemeteries shall be registered in a book to be provided and kept by the trustees for that purpose, and in such register-book shall be distinguished in what parts of the cemetery the several bodies are buried; and such register-book shall be indexed so as to facilitate searches for entries therein; and every book and document purporting to be such register-book or a copy or an extract therein shall be received in all courts as evidence of burials entered therein." This is probably the closest re locating burials, but there is nothing regarding the set/layout of the cemetery being legislated. The 1890 Act was a consolidation of all previous cemetery acts. With a number of early burials in cemeteries in the gold mining, early pastoral eras, etc, burials were undertaken very quickly in any position as the living had to continue with their existence under harsh conditions. So I think you will find that there are a plethora of cemetery layouts within the thousands of cemeteries in Victoria. All this adds to the issue. Cheers, David -----Original Message----- From: australia-cemeteries-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:australia-cemeteries-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Garry Batt Sent: Friday, 31 December 2010 10:22 AM To: australia-cemeteries@rootsweb.com Subject: [AUSTRALIA-CEMETERIES] Grave Locations Hi All, I'm always amazed at the systems Trusts use to locate a grave within any given cemetery.

Hi Dave, I must have stuffed that one up. I was referring to the recording of the burial locations withi a cemetery and not the actual layout of the cemeteries. The Cemeteries an Crematoria Act of 2003 was amended in 2005 to cover the recording of burial locations within cemeteries. Yours, Garry. ----- Original Message ----- From: "D Weatherill" <djweath@bigpond.net.au> To: <australia-cemeteries@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, December 31, 2010 9:05 AM Subject: Re: [AUSTRALIA-CEMETERIES] Grave Locations > Gary; > > There is nothing in the cemetery Acts from 1850 to just recently that note > anything about how a cemetery should be laid out. It would appear it was > left up to the Trustees how they wish the cemetery to be set out. As the > Trustees changed the initial set out it was kept or either changed. The > big > issue was in the records kept by the Trust - maps, cemetery plans and who > was buried where. Also many of the records were lost over time re > plans/locations. > > Of interest was that I was looking at a 10 acre cemetery in a small town > where families took a "section" of the area for their burial area and you > walked from area to area, sometimes quite a distance. As result there were > large areas between each family section. > > There are a number where the cemetery is set out in religious denomination > areas, usually graves in marked rows. Most small cemeteries I have > researched seem to be that the person responsible for the burial went to > the > Trust and noted the burial to take place in this spot, or the Trust noted > the spot. Usually no map of locations was kept. > > The 1890 Victoria Cemetery Act 10 July, 1890 [54-Vic-1072]notes in Section > 48, (Page 161-162) > > "All burials within any cemetery under any law for the time being in force > relating to public cemeteries shall be registered in a book to be provided > and kept by the trustees for that purpose, and in such register-book shall > be distinguished in what parts of the cemetery the several bodies are > buried; and such register-book shall be indexed so as to facilitate > searches > for entries therein; and every book and document purporting to be such > register-book or a copy or an extract therein shall be received in all > courts as evidence of burials entered therein." > > This is probably the closest re locating burials, but there is nothing > regarding the set/layout of the cemetery being legislated. The 1890 Act > was > a consolidation of all previous cemetery acts. > > With a number of early burials in cemeteries in the gold mining, early > pastoral eras, etc, burials were undertaken very quickly in any position > as > the living had to continue with their existence under harsh conditions. > > So I think you will find that there are a plethora of cemetery layouts > within the thousands of cemeteries in Victoria. All this adds to the > issue. > > Cheers, > > David > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: australia-cemeteries-bounces@rootsweb.com > [mailto:australia-cemeteries-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Garry Batt > Sent: Friday, 31 December 2010 10:22 AM > To: australia-cemeteries@rootsweb.com > Subject: [AUSTRALIA-CEMETERIES] Grave Locations > > Hi All, > I'm always amazed at the systems Trusts use to locate a grave within any > given cemetery. > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > AUSTRALIA-CEMETERIES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message