Our History at Springvale Botanical Cemetery

Springvale Botanical Cemetery History

The Victorian government purchased the site in 1878 and permanently reserved it for a cemetery on 10 May 1887.

Political and municipal rivalries prevented the cemetery from being established earlier. The cemetery, originally known as The Necropolis Springvale, was established in 1901, and the first burial that of a child Clarence Reardon was on 20 March 1902. Springvale Botanical Cemetery was unique in adopting an original formal plan based on the Union Jack.

While all the original buildings and railway line have been demolished, the cemetery’s historic core is preserved, with all burials from the early 1900s and some original plantings such as bunya-bunya pine trees, palms and gums surviving.

The cemetery is important in the history of cremation in Australia. The construction of the Boyd crematorium and chapel in the 1930s-1940s helped put the cemetery on the map. By 1970 the improved crematorium was very large by world standards and possessed the most productive and efficient cremation infrastructure in Australia. Springvale is a world-class cemetery with an advanced crematorium and series of chapels and is renowned for its botanical significance, including the largest memorial rose gardens in Australia and approximately 12,000 trees. The site now covers 169 hectares or 422 acres. It is estimated that there have been 473,000 cremations and 162,000 burials.

Notable interments include:

• Sir Zelman Cowen – Governor-General
• Sir John McEwen – Prime Minister
• Frank Crean – Deputy Prime Minister
• Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell – Actor
• Jack Dyer – AFL Richmond Football Club player and media personality
• Darren Millane - Collingwood Football Club player
• Scobie Breasley – Prominent Jockey
• Tommy Woodcock – Phar Lap’s strapper
• Ethel Attiwill – WWI national nurse administrator
• Eight Victoria Cross recipients (more than any other Victorian cemetery)