Nundah’s Historic Cemetery is Queensland’s oldest surviving cemetery. It is also the first burial ground linked to free settlement, and a site many locals pass without realising its full history.
The story begins in 1838, when a group of German Lutheran missionaries settled on Zion’s Hill, above Kedron Brook. They called the settlement German Station, and it was later renamed Nundah. Brisbane City Council states that “Nundah” is believed to come from an Aboriginal word meaning “a chain of waterholes.”
A burial ground was set aside there in the 1840s, first known as German Station Cemetery, and only one death had been recorded on site by 1845. Several children died the following year, and it is their graves, along with others from this period, that appear on an 1846 sketch attributed to missionary Carl Gerler.
None of the original wooden grave markers survives today. The oldest standing headstone is dated March 1855, and a number of the earlier graves carry German inscriptions, a reminder of the community that established the cemetery in its earliest years.
In 1914, J MacDonald built a small shelter pavilion on the site, designed by architect John Henry Burley. It still stands as one of the cemetery’s few constructed features.
Brisbane City Council took over management of the cemetery from local trustees in the 1930s. The cemetery was formally closed to further burials by 1963, bringing an end to more than a century of use.
From Closure to Heritage Recognition
For almost two decades afterwards, the site received little formal attention until a renewed interest in local heritage prompted action in the early 1980s.
The Nundah Historic Cemetery Preservation Association was formed in 1982 and carried out restoration work at the site that same year. As a result of that work, the cemetery was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
Several notable figures are buried at the site. Among them are George and Mary Bridges, recognised as the founders of the Nundah township, and Thomas Bridges, who represented the electorate of Nundah in the Legislative Assembly. James Dickson, a former Premier of Queensland and Commonwealth Minister for Defence, is also buried there.
More than 170 years on, the cemetery remains one of Nundah’s most direct and tangible links to its earliest days as a free settlement.
Featured image: Inside the grounds of Nundah Historic Cemetery, QLD, 2026. | Photo credit: Gromithead/Wikimedia Commons
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