West End Cemetery, Townsville, QLD Australia is located on the southern slope of Castle Hill and is bounded to the north by unmade road reserve (Francis Street), on the west by Church Street, on the south by a recreation reserve fronting Flinders Street West and residential allotments fronting Norman and Musgrave Streets, and on the east by a school reserve.



West End Cemetery, surveyed in 1865, was Townsville's first official cemetery and second burial ground. The official Townsville General Cemetery [West End Cemetery] was surveyed along with Townsville's first suburban allotments, west of the main settlement on Ross Creek, in November 1865.



Originally the cemetery was 19 acres in size. Although not officially gazetted as a cemetery reserve until 1872, the burial ground was used from at least March 1868 when Captain Henry Sinclair, founder of Bowen, was buried there. Finally, in August 1872, the Townsville Cemetery Reserve at West End was gazetted and trustees were appointed, following which cemetery rules were gazetted in July 1873 and a burial register established later that year.



West End Cemetery was closed officially in 1930, with only previously purchased plots used for burials after that time. Since 1930 up to 288 people have been buried in family graves at West End. Further changes to the cemetery boundary were made in 1935 when 3 acres, excised from the north east corner, was added to the adjacent school reserve.



West End Cemetery served as Townsville's General Cemetery from c.1868 to 1902, and contains the graves of people important in the history of Townsville, the region and Queensland generally. In consequence, the cemetery provides a unique source of historical information about the development of Townsville and of North Queensland. The place remains a substantially intact example of a 19th Queensland cemetery, containing early headstones, plantings and perimeter fencing. In illustrating its type, the cemetery is an important source of information about the work of monumental masons and the history of cemetery design and aesthetics in Queensland.