Bourke cemetery essentially consists of two adjacent parts - the old Historic Section and the New Section. The Old Section is closed to new burials except in exceptional circumstances and contained over 4600 burials as at year 2000.
Both sections are divided into denominational areas which are clearly marked.
The first recorded burial was in 1861 for 1 year old Henry Senfort Sly.
Despite the surveying of the cemetery to create a formal pattern based on religious denominations, the reality reveals a very informal arrangement. Burials are a little random with denominations encroaching on each other. By 1900 with space an issue and with over 3000 burials to date, approval was given to reinter over the old cemetery.
Up until 1967 the control of the cemetery, including keeping of burial records, remained with the trustees of the religious denominations. When Council took over it was discovered that very few registers existed.
In transcribing the images every endeavour has been made to list the correct denominational area using the area markers as guides. However, it is highly likely that some inscriptions have been incorrectly listed.
In the older Historic Cemetery most existing headstones are still legible although many have fallen and are broken and many graves are unmarked. In the New Section inscriptions are generally in excellent condition.
There are two Columbaria, one in each Section. The Columbarium in the Old Section appears to be memorials only with no ashes interred therein.
There are many graves where inscriptions have been lost or were unmarked. Small white crosses with metal name tags have been placed on many otherwise unmarked graves.
Both Sections are maintained in good condition. There are no facilities.
General cemetery images are by Peter A Jones.
Ray Cork visited the site in November/December 2022 and made images of the inscriptions in all portions except the Old and New C of E & New RC portions which have yet to be photographed.
These images are currently being transcribed and uploaded to the database. As at Mar 2023 Old RC, Old & New Pbn, Old Ind, Old & New Mth, New Wes; Old & New Col, Chinese & Muslim portions are complete. The New C of E portion is in progress. This is a Work in Progress.