My heritage place
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All Saints Anglican Church at Tamrookum near Beaudesert is family-owned, built in 1915 as a memorial to Robert Martin Collins.
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Heritage listing for Clermont Cemetery
Clermont Cemetery, established in 1866 and still in use, has been honoured for its state heritage significance by entry in the Queensland Heritage Register.
Queensland Heritage Council Chair David Eades said the cemetery was part of the story of Clermont's establishment as one of the state's earliest mining towns.
"The place has been Clermont's only public cemetery since the town's inception in the 1860s and it contains graves dating back to this period. About 20 percent of over 3000 known burials in the cemetery pre-date 1900," Mr Eades said.
"It is important also because of its association with the great flood of December 1916 which swept away the lower areas of Clermont with the loss of over 60 lives.
"This was the worst flood in Queensland's history which brought about the relocation of the town from the flats around Clermont Lagoon to higher ground nearby.
"At least 36 of the flood victims were buried in the Clermont Cemetery, most in a mass grave, providing emotive evidence of the human cost of Queensland's harsh climatic conditions.
"The cemetery itself was flooded and a marker at the mass grave shows the depth of the flood waters."
Descendants of the flood victims still live in Clermont, and in 1991 the Lioness Club of Clermont erected a memorial to the victims in the cemetery on the site of the mass grave.
"Early cemeteries are important records of the pattern of non-Indigenous settlement in Queensland and the Clermont Cemetery is particularly important for its association with early mining in Queensland," Mr Eades said.
"New goldfields typically attracted fortune seekers from all over the world and the birthplaces of those buried in the Clermont Cemetery during the nineteenth century reflect the multicultural nature of the town during the peak of mining activity in the area.
"The numbers interred are also a stark reminder of the dangers in mining," he said.
During this period, birthplaces other than Australia and the British Isles that can be found on the headstones included: China (most numerous), Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, France, and single burials each of an Austrian, a Swiss, a South Sea Islander, a Japanese, a Canadian and an American. Many of these nationalities, and others, are represented also in later graves.
The Clermont Cemetery is among the earlier surviving public cemeteries in central Queensland, others being located at St Lawrence (earliest burial 1857), South Rockhampton (established 1860), Marlborough (earliest burial 1860) and Nebo (earliest burial 1866).
Clermont Cemetery was identified as part of the statewide heritage survey, being carried out by the Department of Environment and Resource Management's Heritage Branch.
The Queensland Heritage Council is the state's independent peak body and advisor on heritage matters and determines what places are entered in the Queensland Heritage Register.
Places that are entered in the Heritage Register are considered of importance to Queensland's history and are protected under heritage legislation.