Pennyweight Flats Cemetery

On a hill, not far from the mail Chewton Cemetery, we find the historic Pennyweight Flats Cemetery. This was on land selected for its worthlessness as a gold source. Since a pennyweight is a very small amount, the cemetery was named to be a nearly worthless place.



Yet, it is a precious place for the families of those interred here. This is a children's cemetery. Over 200 children were buried here at the height of the gold rush. Dysentery, accident, sanitation, murder, and more contributed to the residency here.

The graves are poorly marked and most stones are nearly illegible. the modern plaques are placed at the foot to tell you, as best anyone can now read, what the makers say. This is pretty readable, but others have gaps and the plaques reflect this with omitted letters or words.

The size of the graves are all small and this is clear from the boundaries constructed from loose stones piled into low walls. In many cases, if there is a marker at all, it is a larger stone placed at what is presumably the head of the grave.

A pretty hill, once though worthless, is now a beautiful memorial to the young people whose lives were lost in the difficult life of living in a 19th century gold mining town.