Warwick General Cemetery 1.7

Warwick General Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery at Wentworth Street, Warwick, Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Dornbusch & Connolly and built from 1853 onwards by Phil Thornton. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 27 April 2001.HistoryThe first section of the Warwick General Cemetery was surveyed in 1850, when the town of Warwick was officially laid out, and the earliest burial is understood to have been in 1853. Warwick General Cemetery is located to the west of the Warwick central business district, on an elevated area near a bend in the Condamine River. While the size of the cemetery has changed it has always been organised with denominational sections and includes monuments and memorials pertaining to those who lived in Warwick and the surrounding district, including the prominently situated William Mitchner Shelter-shed.Allan Cunningham's exploration of the southern Darling Downs in 1827 first revealed the potential of the Darling Downs for pastoral and agricultural usage. In the 1840s pastoralists moved into the area, and in the late 1840s the township of Warwick was established by the NSW colonial government as an administrative and service centre for the surrounding pastoral district. An initial survey of the town was undertaken in 1849, with further survey in 1850. The latter included 8 acres reserved as general cemetery, to the northwest of the township. The first sale of Warwick town lots took place in July 1850.