In the first few years of the colony, mortality was very high, but the common childhood infections were absent until the 1830s. From the 1880s, there was a sustained decline in mortality from communicable diseases, and therefore in aggregate mortality, while maternal mortality remained high.

Some details included with photos.

The squares upon which the cross is mounted record the deaths of three children. John died in 1911, aged 12. Ellen drowned in 1918 aged 9 and Mary died at 12, cause not listed.

A moving family monument at Sandon, Victoria. Parents buried alongside children who pre-deceased them.

Vaughan Cemetery! While the parents lived to an old age they lost three children.

Note the death of Mary at 24 and her two children aged 2 and 7 months within a year of one another

After the loss of her daughter one can only speculate that the loss of her son in the Great War led to her death of this Moliagul mother

Walket and Mary buried with their infant son

Moliagul. An infant sister!

Grandchild lying alongside grandfather Sandon

Infant! A simple, yet beautiful water memorial that incorporates an angel in the water feature.

Child’s grave at Pennyweight where 200 children who died during the gold rush were buried.

The two young children who lie here, Annie and Henry Clifton, died in a fire in Spring Gully.

A particularly poignant stone records the death of a mother after child birth, along with the baby, another infant and 5 year old twins