This is not the oldest general cemetery which has served Lismore.  The first is at North Lismore on the Nimbin Road, becoming in 1971 the Pioneer Cemetery Memorial Park.

The next is the Barham Street General Cemetery, where the earliest known burial was in 1881.  Closing in 1950, this became a memorial park in 1980.

On 12 December 1898, Council resolved 'That the proposed site for Cemetery at Rifle Range be approved', it was gazetted in 1907.

Provision was made over the years for the community's diverse religious composition.

Aboriginal people were buried in the Non-Sectarian section or by denomination.

A Chinese portion was set aside in the Church of England (Anglican) Section C.  A committal service by the Anglican clergy often preceded a traditional Confucian ceremony.  After a period of years with government approval the remains were sometimes exhumed and returned to the person's home village in China.

Those from the Indian sub-continent were mostly from the Punjab, and a few from the North-west Frontier Province or Afghanistan.

Muslim (formerly 'Mohammedan) graves, some with inscriptions in Arabic, face in the direction of Mecca.

In keeping with the traditions of the Hindu and Sikh faiths, an area was approved for open-air cremations on 1 May 1914, first known as the 'Hindoo' and later the Indian portion.  Headstones are not part of the Hindu and Sikh traditions.

Open-air cremations ceased with the opening on 24 July 1966 at Goonellabah of Lismore City Council's crematorium, at the time the only one in New South Wales outside Sydney and Newcastle.  Subsequently the crematorium and the newly-established lawn cemetery have become known as the Lismore Memorial Gardens.

Council has all available details of local burials on a computer database.

It is possible to look up a name and note the location of the gravesite.

For more details contact

Lismore Memorial Gardens,

Skyline Road

, Goonellabah

Weekdays 8am to 4pm Telephone 02 6625 1221