Will Les Jones, we are excited to announce we have a date for the unveiling of a Memorial for Those Who Rest in Free Ground and Unmarked Graves.
You are welcome to join Les Jones and I, (Roselyn Fauth) at 10 am on Sunday 14 December 2025 at the Timaru Cemetery.
We will be joined by His Worship the Mayor of Timaru, Nigel Bowen – Timaru District Mayor – and the Member of Parliament for Rangitata, Hon James Meager MP who will uveil the plaque.
This has been an entirely community-led project, created through local fundraising and volunteer effort to honour those who were never given a marker.
This monument is important because it finally gives recognition to people whose lives and losses were never formally acknowledged, and brings visibility to a part of our community’s history that has been overlooked for more than a century...
While I was on the hunt for Timaru history, I learned about the Free Ground section and pauper graves. This is an area where over 700 people, including more than 200 babies, were buried by the government in the cemetery managed by the Timaru District Council. According to the cemetery database, the earliest pauper burial took place in July 1863 and the last known burial here was an infant interred in 1983. You can search for the names in the Council’s online cemetery database by using the advanced search and selecting “Row 0”.
Before the first interments at the Timaru Cemetery in October 1860, I am not entirely sure where people were buried. Traditionally, burials took place on church land, but there were no church graveyards in Timaru township itself, so early settlers were likely laid to rest wherever suitable ground could be found. Two burial reserves were originally set aside when the town was surveyed – one near today’s Aigantighe Art Gallery and one beside the Botanic Gardens – but only the current cemetery site was ever used. As the settlement grew, the cemetery developed into denominational sections alongside the Free Ground, reflecting the social realities of the time. In the late 1870s, the New Zealand Government passed the Cemeteries Act, which shifted responsibility for public cemeteries to local councils. This law shaped how cemeteries like Timaru were laid out, recorded, and managed, including how the Free Ground operated.
If a person’s interment was paid for by the government, then they were not allowed to have a headstone unless the family reimbursed the cost of the burial. As a result, there is a large stretch of open lawn that, unless you look closely, you might not notice holds the humps and hollows of many people’s graves.
A significant number of those resting here are stillborn babies. Before 1912, stillbirths were not legally registered in New Zealand, and families facing loss often had very limited options. Many stillborn or very young infants were quietly placed in the Free Ground, especially during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s when hospital practices shaped how these children were buried. In total, around 300 babies and infants lie here.
Row 0 also includes several burials from the time of the 1918 influenza pandemic, with a small rise in interments during late 1918 and early 1919 reflecting the impact of the deadly second wave that reached South Canterbury.
These graves were known as pauper graves. It wasn’t easy to learn about the people who rest here. At first, I assumed it was due to poor record-keeping. But I later learned that many family and friends purposely hid the details of these burials because poverty carried shame and embarrassment. Their stories faded into silence.
It was one afternoon when I noticed someone playing with their dog in this area that the weight of this really hit me. They had no idea they were playing over the graves of all these people. And why would they? There is nothing to tell you what lies beneath the grass.
So with the support of Mason, Les Jones, and the permission of the Timaru District Council, we set out to create a monument to raise awareness of this quiet area of lawn and to remember the more than 700 people who rest in Free Ground and unmarked graves.
Even today, people can still receive government assistance for burials, which means that those who rest in the Free Ground are only one part of a much wider story. While this monument acknowledges the people in this specific area, we also recognise the many who were buried in other parts of the cemetery without headstones, and all those throughout Timaru’s history who rest in unmarked graves. There are pauper graves in many of the wider Timaru district’s cemeteries, not only here, which reminds us that poverty, loss, and unmarked burials were a reality faced by families across our region.
We considered including the names of the people who rest here on the memorial, but many families in the past chose to keep these burials private, and we wanted to honour that. And because people can still receive government assistance for burials today, the list continues to grow. For these reasons, we felt it was more appropriate to acknowledge everyone collectively, with dignity and care, rather than list individual names.
Because the term pauper does not sit well with many people today, we chose to reflect on this area using the term Free Ground. Historically, Free Ground was the section of a cemetery set aside for burials paid for by the government when a family could not afford the cost. It simply meant the burial was free of charge, not a judgement of a person’s worth or circumstances. Using this term allows us to acknowledge the history honestly while speaking about those who rest here with the dignity and compassion they deserve.
The memorial project leads, Roselyn Fauth of WuHoo Timaru and Les Jones of Aorangi and Harding Memorials, wish to sincerely thank everyone who donated to make this possible, including K T, K S, the Kroening Whānau, The Oxford, and T B. We also thank the Timaru Civic Trust for kindly accepting donations on our behalf, Timaru Bluestone for donating the memorial boulder, the New Zealand Master Monumental Masons Association, and our project supporters McBride Monuments and the Timaru District Council.
By doing this, we hope to bring recognition to this part of the cemetery and to offer a small measure of peace and dignity to tho