Milbong Lutheran cemetery, near Boonah

Well, what do you do on a hot summer's day? Stay home and lounge in the pool. No, off to photograph Milbong St Luke's Lutheran cemetery about 10 kms from Boonah.

I need to create a ratings system for cemeteries, just so I can give Milbong Lutheran 1 star out of 5. No shade, lots of prickly weeds around the graves, and abundant insect life. Remind me not to be buried there. Indeed, there aren't a lot of recent graves there. My guess is that it would only appeal to someone with family already buried in the cemetery. It's not very picturesque or pleasant otherwise.

Now one of the things I have learnt from our everquest for little old cemeteries is to look at fences and gates. A paddock with a fence or gate that is fancier than you'd need to keep the cows inside is a prime candidate for an abandoned cemetery and well worth a walk around to see what's there. Now this is were Milbong Lutheran is a bit mysterious. Across the road from the cemetery is a house that looks like a converted church, which I had presumed was St Luke's (many of these country churches having been closed and sold off). However, I noticed today that the cemetery has a slightly fancy wooden front fence (admittedly largely in disrepair now) which extends beyond the cemetery and across the front of an adjacent paddock, suggesting that the site was once larger and may perhaps have had a church next door. OK, not a big mystery and probably not one to be a storyline for CSI, but one for me to solve ... where was St Luke's?

Aside from the condition of the cemetery, the headstones were the usual Lutheran mixture with a few older ones in German, a couple of eroded sandstone ones and a few impossible-to-read granite ones. Please put in your will that you want a white marble headstone -- it is far and away the best choice for long-term legibility. While nobody would use sandstone any more, granite is still a popular choice because it looks really good when new but doesn't wear well. Granite also attracts lichens (no idea why, but trust me, I've seen plenty of lichen-covered granite headstones).

Anyhow, to restore ourselves afterwards, we had lunch and coffee at the Art & Soul Cafe (and Art Gallery) in Boonah.