Mystery buried in graveyard

IT’S been has an enduring mystery for more than 80 years – who is buried in an old Maudsland church graveyard?

The Holy Rood Church was destroyed by fire in 1936 and rebuilt at nearby Oxenford.

But with the Anglican Church now selling off the site where the old wooden church once stood, the hunt is on to find descendants of those entombed below.

With church records lost in the fire, the search has hit something of a dead end. Ground penetrating radar has detected as many as three graves on the site on the site but the identity of the remains are still a mystery which the Anglican Church’s Gold Coast North Parish is eager to solve.

The original church was designed and built in 1887-88. Mr F.G. Walker was the architect and he followed a design of an English church where he had previously worshipped. Sadly, the church records are believed to have been lost in the 1936 bushfire and no trace can be found of any other information to provide further substantive clues.

However, some handy detective work by current parish manager Rod Mengel has shed some light on the mystery. He believes he knows the identity of one person buried on the block – George Donald who died of “senile decay” at the age of 96 on 20 January 1889.

Mr Mengel trawled through old newspaper articles between the 1880s and the 1930s but the only name he could identify with reasonable certainty was Mr Donald.

“It is likely that we will have to exhume the remains of bodies to be able to sell the block,” he said.

“So ideally it would be more respectful if we know that we have done everything possible to find out who they are and get permission from their closest relatives.”