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Contains 14,500 names from 1862-2008. Includes complete Eaglehawk cemetery including crematorium, rose garden, lawn and monumental areas.

The Eaglehawk Gold rush in May 1852 followed the discovery of Gold in 1851 at Bendigo Creek – and so the prospectors came, lured by the vision of easy riches. They left their homes and families buoyant with the dream of great wealth and willingly suffered the trials and tribulations of the sea voyage and the overland trek through inhospitable terrain. Their wagons and carts bogged down in the mire of the Mt. Alexander road as they made their torturous way to the new diggings.

The miners backgrounds were as varied as the hue of their skins – sailors, shepherds, blacksmiths, butchers, bakers and servants, all forsook their homelands after hearing stories of miners literally tripping over nuggets on the new Victorian fields. And eventually they came to the rich Eaglehawk diggings.

Others who had tried their luck in California during the 1849 rush returned to commerce as an easier more reliable source of income, supplying the new chums with picks, spades, tents, foodstuffs and other essentials for their daily survival – often at outrageous prices.

The Government Gazette dated 9th December 1863 stated "A site for a cemetery at Eaglehawk has been reserved by Order of the Government on 28th September 1863". The area reserved was 5 acres fronting Reserve Street. The Eaglehawk Council was made trustees of the cemetery on the 7th of December that year.

The Bendigo Regional Crematorium is adjacent to the cemetery and is also controlled by the Bendigo Cemeteries Trust.

The Eaglehawk Old Monumental Section is laid out in orderly rectangular plats. It has all denominations and a Paupers section. There are many magnificent trees lining the roadways such as Bunya Pines, Morton Bay Figs, Oak, Hoop Pine, Canary Island Pine and Silky Oak.

The first recorded burial at the Eaglehawk Cemetery is that of 21 year old John Edmond McDonoch. He was interred in Grave 1 Section C on 6th July 1864. Today there is still a monument standing that was erected in his memory. He was a young storekeeper from Serpentine Creek.

Cornishmen were the largest ethnic group on the Bendigo Goldfields and the number of Headstones with Cornish names in this Cemetery makes one realize their importance to the development of Bendigo and in particular Eaglehawk.

They were the experts in steam engineering and hard rock mining but like all miners they paid for going underground with their lives at an early age.
"No dividends had they to prize with sweat and pain they gave their lives"

There is a wonderful monument to all the pioneers in the monumental Section of this Cemetery.

There have been 6 Sextons live in the Sextons Residence formerly located near the front gates of the old monumental section. The cottage was built in the 1870's and was demolished in the 1970's.

Expansion of the Cemetery

Over the years the cemetery has expanded, the old monumental is almost full and a much later monumental section fronting Grenfell Street has very few available sites. A large attractive and colourful lawn area is adjacent to the old and new monumental areas.

A Crematorium has also been established in the grounds along with federation style office buildings, ornamental lake and native memorial gardens. The first cremation at Bendigo was on 13th Sep 1990.

Can I find my ancestors?

There are many interesting old monuments in the old monumental section, but there are also many unmarked graves all of which can be identified. Many descendants are marking the graves of their ancestors with memorial bronze plaques. These can be ordered through the Trust Office on the site.

There are so many vandalized headstones in