Paynesville Cemetery was founded in 1897 with the aid of a grant of land from the James Family on the main road to Bairnsdale.
Burials had taken place in the area before this but there appears to have been no records kept.
The Paynesville Cemetery Trust Board has commisioned a ground radar survey to try and locate the early burials. We are seeking grants to enable this to take place in 2022 or 2023. Until the sites of these burials are located it is very hard to plan where new burial areas can be located.
The results of the ground radar are becoming available and show over 50 graves we did not know about so far. It expected more will be revealed in the new scans completed in September.
Some are children and could be from the early Diptheria outbreak in the 1880's before the area was designated a cemetery. We plan to mark each burial site to enable these areas to be preserved and not reused for future burials. No records exist that indicate when they we buried or who was buried there.
Updated 29 Oct. 2022