If you are leaving Paynesville and heading towards Bairnsdale... this is on your left as you leave town. It's very easy to pull into with ample carparking area. If you go straight ahead or to your right there is a lawn area. You need to walk past these to get to the older graves.... and some of the oldest ones I read were way past these on the fence line to the neighbouring farmer.Â
In the older part of the cemetery there is a World War One memorial. It is the Paynesville Cemetery Garden of Honour. Like many towns across Australia, Paynesville citizens enlisted to serve in the armed forces to fight for King and Country  in the Great War. The men and women were fishermen, labourers, farmers, school teachers, with a student being their youngest soldier.  Seventeen local men were killed in action during WW1 with two at Gallipoli and fifteen in France/Belgium.  Many who returned from the war to continue their lives are also buried here.Â
Peter William Wertheimer also lies here... he had been given an OAM... The Order of Australia is an Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service.
I mentioned the graves near the fenceline ... one of them caught my eye. Ian James was the son of B & R James- the loved brother of Bryan, Molly and Margaret... he perished at Higatura, Papua at the Mt Lamington Eruption. This sparked my curiosity because I had not heard of it.Â
In early January 1951, a series of minor explosions and earthquakes rocked Mount Lamington, a volcano in the Australian-administered Territory of Papua and New Guinea. Prior to the eruption, Mount Lamington was not recognised as a volcano due to the absence of historically-recorded eruptions and dense vegetation cover. From January 15, volcanic activity intensified, and tall eruption plumes were generated. The largest eruption occurred on the morning of January 21 when a thick black plume of ash rose 15,000 metres (50,000 ft) into the atmosphere. The eruption collapsed a lava dome and produced a lethal pyroclastic flow that killed 2,942 people. In the years after the eruption, new lava domes formed and collapsed in succession. Activity persisted until July 1956. The eruption is the deadliest natural disaster in Australian history, as the region was under the rule of the Government of Australia.
Amazingly the grave for one of those people lies here. And near him is the grave of Robert Henry (Bob) who was a Gunner in the 2nd Sect. 4th Divisional Ammunition Column who died of wounds in France, Sept. 29th 1918. Aged 26 years.
