eHive Object Details

Name/Title Burke and Wills Memorial : Melbourne General Cemetery, c. 1920s

About this objectPhotograph of the front of the monolithic Burke and Wills memorial located at the southern end of Melbourne General Cemetery.

The bodies of the dead explorers were exhumed from the place where they died, Cooper's Creek, Queensland, and were interred in the cemetery in January 1863. The monument was erected over the grave site in May 1866, and the inscriptions on the base added in 1873.

The inscription reads:
In Memory of Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills

The large, Harcourt granite, roughly hewn block was the largest block ever quarried in Victoria, with the Victorian Parliament providing the funds. The monument was designed by Huxley and Parker, who placed the granite on another square block to which the inscriptions were added. Both blocks are elevated on two steps.

The top part of a smaller monument can be seen at the bottom of the photograph. It was erected in 1910, by the Council of the Old Colonists Association, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the departure the explorers from Melbourne.

At least two other graves can be seen to the left of the monument, and others to the right.

This image is attributed to Everard Studley Miller who photographed many graves and tombstones in the Old Melbourne Cemetery (established in 1837) in the 1920s as part of a project led by Isaac Selby to record and commemorate all aspects of Melbourne's second cemetery (the first being at Flagstaff Hill). The RHSV holds original glass negatives and albums of the photographs from this project.

One of the many glass slides purchased from retailers or specifically made for illustrated lectures given by Isaac Selby between c. 1930 and c. 1955 to raise money for the Old Pioneers Memorial Fund.

For more information about this image contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria.

MakerMiller, Everard Studley, 1886-1956.

Maker RolePhotographer

Measurements8.2 x 8.2 cm

Period1920-1930

Object TypePhotograph

Subject and Association KeywordsSelby, Isaac, 1859-1956

Subject and Association KeywordsMonuments and memorials

Subject and Association KeywordsMelbourne General Cemetery (Carlton, Vic.)

Subject and Association KeywordsBurke, Robert O'Hara, 1821-1861

Subject and Association KeywordsWills, William John, 1834-1861.

Subject and Association KeywordsMiller, Everard Studley, 1886-1956.

Named CollectionImages collection

Object numberGS-TM-02

Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved