Nardie Cemetery (1839-2012): a short history, by Beth Frayne.
Extract from Duidgeeana, the newsletter of the Toodyay Historical Society (Inc.), Issue No. 27, May-June 2012, pp. 6-8.
Photo caption: The entrance to the Nardie Cemetery, off Nardie Drive, Toodyay. (Photo: B. Frayne, 2012)
Extract from the essay:
The historic Nardie Cemetery is located off Nardie Drive, alongside the Avon River, near the Extracts Industrial Estate on the Northam-Toodyay Road. Originally Avon Location 202, the site is now Avon Location 28670 (Reserve 36465).
Beginnings
The site was part of settler James Lloyd’s grant Avon Location V, called Nardie. It was first used as a burial site by settler Charles Harper when he buried his infant daughter Isabella (born 1839) there in an unmarked grave in 1839 or 1840 (exact death date not yet determined) [as at 2012]. Charles and his wife Julia (nee Lukin) lived on the Nardie property, having leased it from the Lloyd family in 1839. Mary Elizabeth Whitfield (4 years old), daughter of Francis Whitfield Jnr., was also buried on the Nardie site in 1848. Charles Harper, the son of a cleric, read the service. Harper had been appointed Sub-Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages for the District of Toodyay in 1842. Ordained in 1849, Rev. Harper left Nardie around 1855, when he moved to the Toodyay Convict Hiring Depot area to build his house Braybrook. Shortly afterwards, Thomas Millard bought a few acres of riverside Nardie for a small farm.
Gazettal
Around 1856, Thomas Millard offered some of his land for an official cemetery as he was concerned that his stock would trample the graves. So, a General Cemetery at Nardie was gazetted on 5 August 1856 (Avon Location 202), on this land acquired from Millard. It is said that the local residents subscribed to buy the land.
File date: 9 Sept. 2023. Access: Investigator and Query Subscribers