McLeod Street Pioneer Cemetery – Student Education Pack

Cairns Regional Council has just released the Student Education Pack for the beautiful heritage-listed McLeod Street Pioneer Cemetery.

The pack, which consists of Teacher’s Notes and a Student Workbook, was compiled by Cairns & District Family History Society with the education content written in accordance with Australian Curriculum and in consultation with accredited teachers.

There are so many layers of history in this cemetery that would benefit the education of children, such as family history, social aspects of that time, migration, multiculturalism, which in turn leads to learning about the customs of the different countries, local history, and religions – and all of which form part of our heritage and inspired our contribution to the Education Pack.

It was fortunate that many years ago, someone had the foresight to save this cemetery from destruction and were able to have it heritage-listed, thus saving it for the future.

Four students from Edge Hill Primary School came to the cemetery to promote the pack for the Cairns Regional Council and their interest was inspiring.

The future care of this site is in the hands of young people, such as these students, and after meeting them, it gave a glimmer of hope that the conservation of this beautiful old cemetery will be maintained for many years to come.

The research of the 2501 people buried in this cemetery is an ongoing project by Cairns & District Family History Society with so much having been done already.

We all love to look and admire the heritage buildings around the world, but within the fence of this cemetery, I believe, there contains a great deal more heritage than a single building does.