ED: I'm only posting this because I came across the Alberton Cemetery when on a motorcycling trip in VIctoria a few years ago. Fascinating place:

Situated between Yarram and Port Albert the graveyard which was originally surveyed in 1846 covers approximately 26 acres or 10.5 hectares and has around 1,300 known grave sites.

Bruce Findlay who has been involved with the cemetery since 1948 says it is impossible to know exactly how many graves there are at Alberton.

"We have no records unfortunately for what we call the 'old ground'. We only get the idea that the earliest known burial is from a memorial for Robert McClure. There could well have been burials before that (1812)."

Port Albert's status as a major gateway to the then newly developed region of Gippsland meant that roads and transport were primitive.

This lead to one of the unique features of the Alberton Graveyard in the way bodies were delivered for burial: by water.

"The graveyard backed onto the Albert River and the theory is that the deceased were brought up by whale boat...my theory is that it was the first piece of high ground they encoutered from coming up from the old port" says Bruce Findlay.

One of the other quite amazing features of the modern cemetery is the fact that it is run with only two volunteers who manage the whole 10.5 hectare site.

Trust member Margaret Greenaway says that while more volunteers would be welcome the current group are "devoted and do a wonderful job".

The Cemetery is open to visitors daily and is on the Port Albert Road.

Source - ABC Regional - Audio File Link