RICH Autumnal colours in the gardens, bands playing, Cobb and Co horse carriage tours, coffee and a sausage sizzle are what Ballarat Cemeteries Trust hopes will help to demystify their major parkland.
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A picnic day at Ballarat New Cemetery, as part of Ballarat Heritage Festival, aims to bring more people into the grounds.
Ballarat Cemetries chief executive officer Annie De Jong said while the day is partly for history buffs, it is also about encouraging new visitors and to spark positive conversations and feeling about cemeteries.
Our cemetery holds such a rich history about the people in our community. It's about honouring the lives of those who have passed.
- Annie De Jong, Ballarat Cemeteries chief executive
"Our cemetery holds such a rich history about the people in our community," Ms De Jong said. "It's about honouring the lives of those who have passed and enjoying this space."
Ballarat New Cemetery is almost 150 years old and is only 11 years younger than Ballarat Old Cemetery, which is located off Macarthur Street.
Ms De Jong said an "unusual at the time" feature of Ballarat New Cemetery is the Chinese burial section was developed near the front gates.
The city has a strong Chinese population on the goldfields that all-but-vanished with the introduction of the White Australia Policy in 1901.
A tour, as part of the picnic day, will highlight the unique designs of the Chinese section and how this reflects a Chinese religious view of death in contrast to the cemetery's dominant Christian perspective.
Ballarat China Community Committee's Jim Quinn and Dianne McGrath will lead the tour as a general introduction to the cemetery and its history and evolution.
This will be one of four Heritage Festival tours in Ballarat New Cemetery. There will be a mini-bus tour of significant graves, such as Ballarat's King Billy, a Wadawurrung traditional elder, and a small walking tour with Eerie Tour's Nathanial Buchanan.
Tours will also take in the New Cemetery's feature burial sections, such as the Greek Orthodox, the Dreamtime ode to Indigenous Australians and the Birdsong Walk with its more native, bush-like burial areas.
The cemetery will also feature open sessions on the history of cremation, with Ballarat one of four regional crematoria in the state, along with Bendigo, Geelong and Traralgon.
"This will help to demystify cremation," Ms De Jong said.
"There are lots of myths about cremation, such as people asking do we cremate more than one person at a time.
"We want to show the care for loved ones and a lot of people are really interested in it."
Cremations are increasingly becoming a popular option for farewelling loved ones with about 60 per cent of the state's deaths in the past three months leading to cremation, figures from Birth, Deaths and Marriages Victoria show.
Picnic Day at Ballarat New Cemetery is on Sunday from 9am to 3.30pm.
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