Community
27 May, 2026
Help find a grave
MEMBERS of the Cobden and District Historical Society (CDHS) are urging anyone with records of relatives buried in the old Cobden cemetery to come forward to help the society shape a historical record.
CDHS secretary Delia Kerr said the society was working on building a collection of who was buried in the old Cobden cemetery before the cemetery was moved up onto the hill where it is today.
The old Cobden cemetery is at the site where the Corangamite Shire depot is currently located on Clarke Street.
“All the records are lost and no one knows who’s in the cemetery,” Mrs Kerr said.
“They decided to move the cemetery because it was too wet and boggy – they probably couldn’t bury people in winter because there’s Cobden people in the Camperdown cemetery, and I’m guessing that’s why they’re there.
“So they opened a new one up on the hill but for research purposes we don’t know who’s in that old Cobden cemetery so it would be great to get some names.”
Mrs Kerr said the society was utilising a site called Find a Grave, where people can upload grave sites they’ve discovered onto a searchable database.
“I discovered that Find a Grave have already started putting people in,” she said.
“Lots of amateur genealogists go around cemeteries and take photos and put them on this site called Find a Grave.
“Some people go even further and they put down who they married and who their children are so you can click onto them and make links.
“You can work a family tree out.
“Find a Grave have already got three of these people.”
Mrs Kerr said the society were seeking death certificates of anyone buried in Cobden pre-1890.
“On your death certificate it always says where you’re buried,” she said.
“So when it says Cobden, before 1890-something, it has to be up at the old cemetery because it was the only place back then that you could be buried in Cobden.
“It would be good for us, just as a research facility, to know who’s up there because if you want to know your family history, then we could say whoever is buried in the old Cobden cemetery, but at the moment we don’t even know who’s in there.”
The society recently received a death certificate from Minnie Wright, who is currently working on a family tree.
“It was for Cornelius Crawley – he’s buried up there, he was a convict,” Mrs Kerr said.
“He lived in Elingamite but we don’t know where in Elingamite.
“He had about eight children, seven boys and a girl.”
The death certificate also included the names Margaret Barton and Sarah Martha Grayland.
Anyone with death certificates of relatives who may have been buried in the old Cobden cemetery should contact Mrs Kerr on 0427 931 009 or via email at cobdenhs@gmail.com.
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