Rookwood Cemetery & Necropolis – Lidcombe – Sydney – New South Wales

Rookwood Necropolis is the great Victorian cemetery of metropolitan Sydney — among the largest operating nineteenth-century cemeteries in the world and a State Heritage–listed cultural landscape. In 1862 the colonial government purchased about 200 acres of the Hyde Park Estate at Haslem’s Creek for a new general necropolis after older burial grounds (including the Sandhills / Devonshire Street cemetery) proved inadequate. Denominational trusts laid out sections according to the 1861 census proportions; Colonial Architect James Barnet designed an early manager’s lodge; and a specialised necropolis railway (with matching stations at Regent Street, Chippendale, and within the cemetery) opened to carry funeral parties.

Burials began in January 1867 under the Necropolis Act. The locality name shifted as residents sought distance from the cemetery association: Haslem’s Creek gave way to Rookwood, and the surrounding suburb later became Lidcombe, while the necropolis kept the name Rookwood. Further land purchases from 1879 expanded the grounds to today’s vast precinct of denominational cemeteries, ornamental planting, monumental masonry and later crematorium facilities.

Rookwood remains an active burial landscape and a major repository of Sydney’s social history. Photographs here show avenues, monuments and heritage fabric across the necropolis.

“ROOKWOOD NECROPOLIS” - Lidcombe - Sydney - New South Wales 

Sydney’s First Cemetery – Beyond Sydney Cove, at the Head of a Small Bay

Sydney's First Cemetery -   Beyond Sydney Cove Terminal At The Head Of A Small Bay

Hereabouts Was Situated Sydney's First Burial Ground 1788 -1792. Some Headstones Were Still In Position I 1874

Captain Collins Records - "Every Person Belonging To The Settlement Being Landed, The Numbers Amounted To 1030 Persons. The Scurvy Now Broke Out, Which Aide  By Dysentry, Began ToFill  The Hospital And Several Died. 

Sergeant James Scott Of The Marines Recorded The First Death, Writing In His Journal

"Sunday 24th February, Thos Harmsworth, Son To. This Harmsworth A stone Died Of A Feaver:" A Few Weekks Later On 30th April, The Same Journal Noted. "This Harmsworth, Marine Died."

In June 1788 Surgeon general John White  Stated That 28. Convict Men And. Women Had Died, Also Three Marines & Ten Children.  No Doubt They Were Interred In This Burial Ground, The First Cemetery In Sydney. 

Later, Collins Wrote Of The Proposed Barracks - "Their Situation Being Directly In The Neighbourhood Of The Ground Appropriated To The Burial Of The Dead, It Became Necessary To Choose Another Spot.... The Gorvernor, In The Company With Rev Mr Johnson, Set Apart The Ground Foremerly Cultivated By The Late Captain Shea Of The Marines. "

A Letter From A Female Convict Written On 14th November 1788 (Historical Records Of New South Wales Volume 2) Describes The West Side Of Sydney Cove, The Area Known As The Rocks, And Goes On to Say:  - 

At The Extremity Of The Lines, Where Since Our Arrival The Dead Are Buried, There Is A Place Called The Church Yard, but We Hear, As Soon As A Sufficient Quantity Of Bricks That Can Be Made, A Chiurch Is To Be Built, And Named St Phillip, After The Governor."

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The Sydney Gazette Of The 5th February 1804 Said - 

"The Plan Of Inclosing The Burial Ground In Order To Prevent Swine And Other Stock From Grazing Upon It And Rooting Up The Earth, Has Been Proposed By The Sexton, And Approved Of. Several Gentlemen Have Already Con'tributed Liberally To Reward The Labour The Must Necessarily Attend The Execution of The Design."