Historical Sites and Heritage Locations

The Eldorado Cemetery sits on the slopes amongst bushland surrounding Eldorado, and with its many marked and unmarked graves of the town’s early pioneers, it is a true step back in time to the area’s mining days. When first established the cemetery was segregated into Catholic, Wesleyan and Anglican, however segregation no longer occurs.

The earliest known burial was that of an infant- Marion Cousins, daughter of Amos and Maria in 1854. In 1900 a fire destroyed all the cemetery records; however, a new database was established in 2013.

In July 1895 the McEvoy Mine disaster resulted in the deaths of John Kneebone, James Thompson, John Crane, Chas Dawkins, Frederick Bork and James Armstrong, five of these six miners are interred here together. This disaster contributed to the change of mining technique from deep shaft mining to open-cut sluicing.

The family graves of John Colin Angus, his wife Lillian, and their daughter Roslyn Schumacher are found here. Colin, a well-known painter, lived at Wandana, Eldorado. At the passing of Roslyn, he commissioned a sculptured portrait of her looking towards the family home, which appears like she is crying when it rains.