Outback Graves Markers

Markegin Cemetery

Region: Wheatbelt
Coordinates: -32.432935, 117.281279
Directions: Shire of Pingelly
Reserve Number 12894
Approximately 24 kms east of Pingelly on Jingaring Road just past where Aldersyde-Pingelly Rd turns to the left. Marked with a brown road sign.

Cemetery

Number of Graves: 1
First Burial: 26 July 1913 Benjamin Spencer died only 3 weeks after arriving with his wife and 5 children from England to join his brother

History

The first settler in the area was Mr Lewis John Bayley who was granted 4,000 acres for grazing in 1846 around the Moorumbine Spring a few mmiles west of Markegin. The land was first surveyed in 1856 and a permanent settlement established around 1860. The expanding district joined forces to build a church, school, store and gaol. On the 24th of April 1884, the Moorumbine Townsite was gazetted. St Patrick’s Church of England was consecrated by Bishop Hale in 1873 and is still in use today. 

The opening of the Great Southern Railway in 1889 resulted in an economic boom for the district along the rail line. It passed just 10km west of Moorumbine and a small settlement was established at the railway siding located there. A spring of water east of the railway crossing was named “Pingeculling,” an Aboriginal name for ‘Watering Place.’ From this, the present name of Pingelly was derived.

The growth and development of Pingelly which was gazetted on the 4th of February 1898 marked the beginning of Moorumbine’s gradual decline. While settlers began to desert Moorumbine, Pingelly attracted many settlers from the Goldfields who were looking for an alternative and more secure means of income. An estimate of the population from the WA Yearbook in 1898 shows that Pingelly had a population of 350. In addition to farming, other profitable industries of the time included sandalwood, mallet bark and animal skins.

(From Shire of Pingelly website)

After the Markegin Hall was built by locals about 1907, it was used for church services, public meetings and social functions.  Soon, the Progress Association lobbied for a school to operate in the building and a teacher, Miss Young, was sent from Perth but the number of children could not be maintained and it soon closed.

At the time of Benjamin Spencer's death, there was a large pastoral property called Coverdale, just east of Markegin, and this may have been where he was coming to work with his brother, Herbert.

The cemetery was gazetted in July 1910 but there was only ever the one burial there because the town that was expected to grow never developed.

 

AGES AT DEATH

0 – 1

 

20 – 29

 

60 – 69

 

2 – 5

 

30 – 39

1

70 – 79

 

6 – 9

 

40 – 49

 

80 +

 

10 – 19

 

50 – 59

 

Unknown

 

 

OCCUPATIONS

Farm worker

1

       

 

 

CAUSE OF DEATH

Influenza

1

       

 

Interesting Information

This is an article from the Pingelly Leader about the death of Benjamin Spencer

Pingelly Leader 28 July1913

References

Shire of Pingelly
Trove
"History of Aldersyde 1846-1946"