Bellbrae Cemetery

The little village of Bellbrae has a delightfully presented cemetery that serves its community and surrounds and has done for some 150 years.  It is on a sloping hillside and is surrounded by trees. It is a place that breathes peace and tranquility.

All who are buried at Bellbrae Cemetery are special people to someone but there are some very special people, the centenarians.  A centenarian is someone who lived to be 100 years or more.  In early 2021, this means the deceased person must have been born before 1920.   The actual birth range of our thirteen centenarians is 1890 to 1919.  (Table)

One can only imagine the changes they must have seen across their lifetime; the wars they lived through; the growth of scientific knowledge that occurred; the revolution in modes of transport from the horse and carriage to the jet aeroplane; the advances in modes of communication from pen and paper and carrier pigeons to the world wide web with practically instantaneous contact to anywhere on the planet.

The age range of our centenarians is 100 years to 105 years.  Interestingly nine of the centenarians were born in Victoria, across the State from Bairnsdale to Tower Hill to Hamilton.  For the others, one was born in New South Wales, one in Hamburg, Germany, one in South Africa, and one in the Shetland Islands in Scotland. There is one unknown.  The headstones/ memorial plaques for centenarians are shown below.