…the cemetery continued to be known locally as the Hazel Glen Cemetery. This also reduced the possibility of confusing the name with the small township of Linton, south-west of Ballarat…

The Hazel Glen Cemetery, now the Arthurs Creek Cemetery, was established by Patrick Reid as a private burial ground for his young wife Agnes (nee Hay) who died on 17 May 1847 at the early age of 49. Agnes had expressed a wish to be buried at her favourite picnic spot on the nearby hilltop overlooking the Hazel Glen homestead and former Stewart’s Ponds pastoral run. The Hazel Glen run then comprised some eight 640 acre sections, held under annual licence by Patrick Reid since 1 January 1844.

A letter from the Survey Office, signed by Robert Hoddle and dated 18 January 1851, advised Patrick Reid that the whole of his run, except for the homestead section, had been applied for and leased to Mr. William Walker. This included the burial ground in the section to the east of the homestead. Patrick Reid held a pre-emptive right to the 640 acre homestead section which was approved for purchase on 30 April 1852.

A petition from Reid ‘claiming compensation for the taking away of his run on the Plenty’ was referred to a select committee of the Legislative Council. The Committee found that Reid had a ‘right to hold the sections of the run until charted, which had not been done until after the land was taken from him’, and ‘that he is fully entitled to recompense from the Colonial Revenue’.

Patrick Reid senior died on 28 July 1858 at the age of 74. He was buried alongside Agnes on the nearby hilltop overlooking the homestead.

Under the Duffy Land Act of 1862, leases in the Arthurs Creek district were cancelled and the land surveyed and thrown open for selection. Members of the Reid family selected land adjacent to the Hazel Glen homestead section. The Hazel Glen burial ground was included in a 6 acre cemetery reserve, set aside for use as a public cemetery with access from Middle Hut Road.

A ‘public meeting of the inhabitants of the Parish of Linton and its neighbourhood was held on the 13 August 1867 in the Hazel Glen schoolhouse for the purpose of nominating Trustees for the Linton Cemetery.’ Trustees nominated were Robert Airey, Charles Draper, Patrick Reid junior, William Reid and Flavius E. Kingsford. The area around the Reid family graves was gazetted as the Linton Cemetery on 17 September 1867.

In early days, the area covered by the original Hazel Glen run and adjacent lands was referred to as the Hazel Glen district. As a consequence the cemetery continued to be known locally as the Hazel Glen Cemetery. This also reduced the possibility of confusing the name with the small township of Linton, south-west of Ballarat.

The steep road, leading directly up the hill to the cemetery from Middle Hut Road, made access difficult. At a meeting of Trustees held at ‘Charnwood’ on 13 December 1902 ‘The Secretary reported that the public meeting to arrange for improving the road leading up to the cemetery was duly held in the Mechanic’s Institute. The outcome of it was that several of the residents met at the cemetery, and formed the road deviating into Mr. W. Reid’s and on up to the cemetery. … The road as it is now, is a very great improvement as the grade up the hill is considerably lessened.

A special meeting of Cemetery Trustees held on 10 July 1926 decided ‘that (the) name of (the) Cemetery be changed from Linton to Arthurs Creek’.

At the annual meeting held on 11 February 1928 it was agreed that the Secretary should write to the President of the Whittlesea Shire ‘asking him to call a public meeting to arrange ways of raising money for the new road into (the) Cemetery’.  The old road was closed and the existing new entrance road from Arthurs Creek Road, gazetted on 29 December 1928.  A report in The Advertiser of April 19, 1929, under the heading Arthurs Creek Cemetery, stated that ‘it should not be very long before (the new road) is finished, and a long and steep climb into this prettily-situated cemetery abolished’.

Additional information about the cemetery is available at Arthurs Creek Cemetery – A Simple Tour

An excellent guide to each of the memorials in the Arthurs Creek Cemetery is located on the Find A Grave Arthurs Creek Cemetery page.

For further information about many of the pioneers in this cemetery see Horticultural Settlement at Arthurs Creek and other chapters in the book Up the Creek: Early Days in the Arthurs Creek District by Bruce G. Draper