Wesley Vale Uniting Church Old Cemetery
Address: Port Sorell Road Wesley Vale 7307 TAS
Data for the Wesley Vale Uniting Church Old Cemetery and columbarium has been kindly provided by Mr Keith Wools-Cobb. Keith writes:
"The present church was first opened in 1888, replacing an earlier Wesleyan Methodist church built in 1865. The cost for that building was £290. The earliest recorded burial is 1870, so the cemetery was in existence before the present church was built. The last recorded burial was in 1987 in an existing grave. The cemetery is now closed.
"The (old) cemetery (in the churchyard) had unfortunately been neglected in the distant past and was so overgrown that, in the early 1990’s, a rotary hoe was used to clean up the area around the graves. Many graves that did not have any structure around them fell victim to the rotary hoe!
"At some time the complete cemetery plans were in the hands of a member of the cemetery trust, with apparently no copies anywhere else, and they were lost. This of course meant that the details of many of the unmarked graves were also lost. I have tried to find out if any cemetery details have been held by some other organisation, archives, etc. but to no avail."
At this stage, there are no images available of the existing headstones. The list of all inscriptions for this cemetery has been compiled with reference to the Tasmanian Pioneer Index of Births, Deaths and Marriages and also to the Nominal Rolls for both World Wars held by the Australian War Memorial.
How to find it
The township of Wesley Vale is about half way between Devonport and Port Sorell, on the Port Sorell road. There is just one general store at Wesley Vale, and the church is located right opposite this shop with the cemetery in its grounds.
More information
The Wesley Vale Cemetery is administered by the Uniting Church Cemetery Trust. For further information, contact the Co-ordinator, 1 Bluewater Cres., Shearwater Tas 7307
Inscriptions
The number of inscriptions for this cemetery is 120
The listing was last updated on 2008-03-28
The listing was complete as at 2007-12-31
See the list of all inscriptions for Wesley Vale Uniting Church Old Cemetery.
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