Cemetery volunteer Jodi Fuller said sometime between Thursday and Saturday a decorative hinge had been ripped off the door of the chapel. 

“The chapel was built in 1872, it’s a grade 1 heritage-listed building which we’re already trying to secure grant funding for to fix up,” Ms Fuller said. 

“One other hinge piece was stolen many, many year ago and now someone has come back and gouged the hinge right out of the wood.”

The history-buff said she believed the hinge was an original and was “sick with anger” that someone would rob a city of its past. 

“This cemetery is the lifeblood to the city’s past,” she said.

“As a gold mining town, you've got all these people from all around the world who started this town of Bendigo who are now buried here. 

“People like Vahland are buried here, people on the first municipal council are buried here, Robert Ross Haverfield – who started the Bendigo Advertiser – is buried here.

“It makes me so utterly mad...if you steal from a cemetery you have no respect, you have no moral worth whatsoever.”