West Kempsey Cemetery

  Graves with Historical Significance

Mary Brock – 20 July 1856

Earliest known burial.  

George Robert Scott

One of only two persons who were born in Australia, died in Australia, and fought in the American Civil War.

Wabra Charlie

North Queensland born Aboriginal Stockman who was killed 28 July 1868. His monument (a broken column) was a huge tribute to an indigenous employee in the 1860s.

Hubert P. and Kate Macklin

The first Clerk of the Kempsey Borough Council, when formed in 1886. Educated at Dublin University, Hubert Macklin was also a School Teacher in Victoria, NSW and N.Z.This headstone is remarkable in its messages written in both English and Gaelic. The depiction of a hand holding a dagger (representing the right hand of Ulster), and its forbidding inferences.

Nurse Mary Kirkpatrick

Mary Kirkpatrick was a very brave and resourceful woman who nursed at the Macleay District Hospital, adjacent to the West Kempsey Cemetery. Most well known for surviving the Plague that struck Kempsey in 1907, leading to the deaths of four local community members, one of which was Matron Gulliford. Nurse Mary stayed at the Matron’s bedside, risking her own life, to provide the necessary care required.

Mary Kirkpatrick is also known as the Grandmother of David Gordon Kirkpatrick, aka Slim Dusty.

Silas Gill

Noted Methodist preacher, who was the founding father of Methodism in the Macleay Valley. He was reputed to be a smuggler and pirate in his early life, before finding God and emigrating to Australia.

Other Interesting Headstones at West Kempsey Cemetery

Pressed Iron	Cast Iron	Rosewood
West Kempsey Cemetery Entrance