Historical Society - Barrabas' first cemetery

4th May 2022

History Notes

An ordinary week for the Historical Society with a few visitors calling in. Members of the O'Meara/Maloney family called in looking for family history­ some people would definitely remember Charlie O'Meara and his wife, Vera. We were also asked why there was no memorial building/ street named O'Meara and of course there is O'Meara Park at the southern end of town.

As a number of other residents also read the Northern Daily Leader and I am sure they are enjoying Mike Cashman's historical stories printed each Wednesday. This week he told the history of the first Tamworth Cemetery which is now marked by a clump of bamboo.

The 1864 flood went through the grave yard taking or tipping over most of the structures on the site. Some of the headstones were moved to the new Tamworth Cemetery when it was surveyed and one or two headstones went to the nearby church yard.

I don't think the 1864 flood in Barraba reached the Barraba Cemetery of the time but it must have been close. The original cemetery was on the north western corner of the Edward and Queen Street intersection and there were three people definitely buried there - Ralph McKid on 19th  October, 1844, aged 27 years, Louisa McKid on 14th May, 1850 aged 34 years and her husband, John McKid, who died on 14th June, 1854, aged 46 years. John was the father of five children left in the care of his second wife, Catherine.

It is quite likely that there were some other burials in this first cemetery but we do not have records of them. The McKid headstones were moved to the present cemetery after it was dedicated on 1870 but it is not known if the bodies were removed as well. We would like to know if anyone is aware of other early burials on this block-we have records of other early deaths but not always where they were buried.

This week I have leant the whereabouts of a couple of graves currently listed in the unknown section at the back of the cemetery records -they are listed now with a property name or perhaps locality which seems to assist people tracing ancestors. There is obviously no visiting such sites without permission from the owner/occupier.

As mentioned a few weeks ago, a postcard collector has purchased a postcard of the original Barraba bridge. He now wants to know about Albert York, the photographer, because he says the card points to a romance with a New Zealand girlfriend, Elsie Searle. Perhaps a member of the York family can help him.