Works completed on shelter at Leopold Cemetery

THE chair of the Geelong Cemeteries Trust has hailed the shelter at the Leopold Cemetery as a great community facility.

Speaking at the shelter’s official opening on Friday last week, John Mitchell said the shelter space enhanced the opportunity for cemetery visitors to spend time reflecting on and celebrating the lives of their loved ones.

He also saluted the work of the Leopold Lions Club, which had driven the project in conjunction with the trust.

The $20,000 project at the 160-year-old cemetery in Kensington Road was funded by the Lions club, the Australian Lions Foundation and donations from the Leopold community.

A plaque, unveiled at the opening, includes the names of all donors.

Installation and garden beautification works were undertaken by the trust, with some assistance from Leopold club members.

Lions Foundation representative Trevor Hirth said the foundation was the charitable arm of the service organisation which not only funded emergency relief in times of natural disasters but provided grants for Lions club projects, such as the cemetery shelter, around Australia.

He said despite the curtailment of fundraising because of COVID-19 restrictions – which also delayed the shelter’s opening – the foundation had delivered $800,000 in funding in the past year.

Project co-ordinator and Leopold Lions Club member John Greenwood said the shelter underscored the club’s ideals of working for and with the community.

Also at the opening were trust deputy chief executive officer Frank de Groot, Lions district governor Tom Blair and Leopold Lions Club president Heather Hallam.

The township of Kensington (which became Leopold in 1893) was first established from the subdivision of 1852. A school was established in the town in 1853-54, and a meeting was held in the schoolroom on August 15, 1859 to elect a committee to administer the new cemetery.

Daniel Beaumont was appointed gravedigger and the cemetery land in Kensington Road was fenced by Charles Sparks.

The first recorded burial was of John Franks on July 30, 1860.