Whroo, 6km south of Rushworth, is deserted. Once a thriving gold town, no original buildings are to be seen. It retains a lonely but beautiful old cemetery in a clearing in the forest.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Visitors to Whroo are sometimes surprised to come across the old cemetery, 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 that followed.
That will change on Sunday, May 22. A traditional cemetery information board is to be unveiled by the Whroo Cemetery Trust, with the generous financial support of the Rushworth Community Bank.
Local timber 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 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 will welcome 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 unveiling event hopes to attract descendants of people buried at Whroo, and is open to all. Formalities are timed for 1.30pm on May 22, and visitors are invited to bring lunch, refreshments and a chair.
