Paddington Cemetery

The Paddington Cemetery operated between 1844-1875 and was Brisbane Town’s main cemetery (also known as Milton Cemetery). The site is now occupied by Suncorp Stadium, previously known as Lang Park. In 1910 the cemetery fell into disrepair and it was proposed to turn the grounds into a recreation reserve. The Paddington Cemetery Act was passed by Queensland Parliament in 1911. The government authorised a resumption of the cemetery and move the remains within 12 months—the chosen cemetery for the relocation of remains was Toowong Cemetery—and Lang Park began construction in 1914. A small reserve next to the Christ Church in Milton also held memorials and headstones, but when relief works began on Lang Park in the 1930s these were also moved to Toowong. 

There were no formal burial registers kept during the cemetery’s operation. Consequently, there is no information on the 4643 gravesites (this is the number of graves identified when the cemetery closed). Part of the former site was excavated during the redevelopment of Suncorp Stadium. All recovered remains except one skeleton were fragmentary at best – they are interred in two vaults in a specially commissioned monument at Toowong Cemetery (located at Portion 17 Section 1).  

Queensland State Archives holds several records under the series titled Works Carried Out by the Public Estate Improvement Branch (ID: S14043). A link to the original correspondence file on the reburials held by QSA is given below