Rookwood Cemetery

Rookwood Cemetery, also known as Rookwood Necropolis, located in Rookwood, Sydney, Australia, is the largest cemetery in the Southern Hemisphere. Rookwood Cemetery has operated continuously since 1867, making it one of the oldest working cemeteries in Australia, functional since the Victorian era. Rookwood Cemetery was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register in 1999.

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Description

In Australia, as in Europe and the United States, by the mid-1800s, there was a trend to move cemeteries outside of the cities for hygienic, aesthetic, and practical purposes.

In 1875, the cemetery’s grounds were described in the local newspaper as, “…being tastefully laid out with shrubs and parterres, divided by neatly-kept paths. Chapels had been erected for each denomination … the style of architecture being generally modern Gothic.” (Sydney Morning Herald, 16 Nov 1875)

Greek Orthodox church in Rookwood Cemetery

The cemetery was divided into sections for various denominations with the size being determined by numbers reported in the 1861 census. The section for members of the Church of England received about 52 acres (21 hectares). Approximately 35 acres (14 hectares) were allocated for the Catholic section and a non-denominational area of about 57 acres (23 hectares) was also established. Other denominations that were granted specific sections were Jewish, Independents or Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Wesleyans.

Here are some other features at Rookwood Cemetery:

• Holocaust Victims Memorial
• Circle of Love for stillborn children and infants
• Merchant Marines Memorial
• Sydney War Memorial

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History

Aboriginal Australians

The history of Rookwood Cemetery is a long one, going back to Australia's natives. The Dharug people were the traditional custodians of the land upon which Rookwood Cemetery is located. Formerly known as the Broken Bay tribe, the Dharug are an Aboriginal Australian people, who lived in pre-colonial times in clans as skilled hunters and fishers. Each clan typically included 50 to 100 people. Some chose to make huts out of bark, sticks, and branches. Smallpox, introduced in 1789 by the British settlers, wiped out up to 90% of the population in some areas.

Overcrowding

By the mid-1800s, in spite of several expansion projects, the Devonshire Street Cemetery in Sydney was becoming overcrowded. In 1843, regarding the Devonshire Street Cemetery, the Bishop of Sydney complained:

the burial ground … belonging to the Church of England, is so completely occupied that not only are decency and propriety much outraged by its crowded state, but it is actually impossible to find room for more bodies.

In response to this problem, the Australian government purchased 200 acres of land in 1862 at Haslem’s Creek from Edward Cohen to serve as a rural cemetery. The cost was ten pounds per acre

Naming the Cemetery

According to the Necropolis Act of 1867, the site was designated as "The Necropolis at Haslem’s Creek" but local villagers referred to it as simply "The Necropolis" (Koine Greek meaning "city of the dead").

Rookwood Cemetery gravesite

Soon afterward, the residents of Haslem’s Creek petitioned officials to have the name of their village changed, not wanting it to be called by the same name as the cemetery. They chose the name of "Rookwood" for their village. A rook is a black bird resembling a crow and they were plentiful in the woods at Haslem's Creek.

A local resident, Mr Slee, said, “…Rookwood is a pleasant name, and a very appropriate one in this case, for there are many crows in the neighbourhood.” In 1879, the villagers' petition was granted and the name of the village was changed to Rookwood.

However, before long, the cemetery was also being referred to as Rookwood. The local residents then changed the name of their village again in 1913. This time, it was called "Lidcombe", a combination of two mayors' names, Lidbury and Larcomb. The cemetery retained the name of Rookwood.

Expanding the Cemetery

In 1925, Rookwood added a crematorium. Still in use today, it is the oldest operating crematorium in Australia.

The Australian War Graves section was established in 1945, following Australia’s participation in two world wars. It features more than 15,000 rose bushes.

Initially, the Anglican, Jewish, Muslim, Independent, and General Trusts managed the various sections of Rookwood. But in 2012, the New South Wales Cemetery Legislation Reform split the management between the Rookwood General Cemeteries Reserve Trust and the Catholic Cemeteries and Crematoria.

By 1879, even more land was needed so about 576 acres (233 hectares) of the former "Hyde Park" were purchased. By the 1890s, the cemetery included the Saint Michael the Archangel Chapel and cottages for cemetery managers.

Today, the cemetery is so large that it has three bus stops within its grounds to transport visitors to various sections.

Cemetery Railway

Haslem's Creek Cemetery railroad station, 1865

When the cemetery opened, there was a railway that brought visitors to Rookwood from surrounding areas. Using a train as transportation to a rural cemetery was not a new idea. At the time of Rookwood's opening, Brookwood Cemetery, in Brookwood, England, was one of the largest cemeteries in the world and it too had a railroad. The name Rookwood may have even been a deliberate adaptation of the well-known name of Brookwood Cemetery and its associated railroad system.

Trains ran from Sydney to Rookwood Cemetery twice a day, carrying mourners and coffins until 1948 when automobile processions by road made it obsolete. Passengers rode for one shilling each way and corpses were free.

Genealogical Information

In 1981, the Society of Australian Genealogists invited volunteers to participate in transcribing the gravestone information and making it available on a computer database. About 90 people initially volunteered in what became known as the “Rookwood Project”.

For many years, the volunteers visited Rookwood on Sunday mornings to transcribe, a process one volunteer likened to “…loading a truck full of sand…with a teaspoon!”

Cemetery maintenance

Maintaining a cemetery the size of Rookwood is a monumental task. The "Friends of Rookwood Inc." is an organization of volunteers dedicated to preserving the cemetery.

More than 77 acres (31 hectares) of the Serpentine Canal within Rookwood was restored in recent years. Some older sections of Rookwood are overgrown with weeds, plants, trees, and native flora, including endangered species of Downy wattle and small leaved Dillwynia (Dillwynia parvifolia).

As the largest Victorian era cemetery still in operation in the world, Rookwood is of significant historical importance.

Notable burials at Rookwood Cemetery

• John Whalan (1849 - 1867), 18-year-old pauper and first unofficial burial at Rookwood Cemetery
• Catherine McMullen (1865 - 1867), 14-month-old toddler and first official burial at Rookwood Cemetery
• Louisa Lawson (1848-1920), newspaper proprietor, writer, and poet; pioneer of women's sufferage in Australia
• Anthony Hordern (1819-1876), merchant, banker, department store founder
• David Scott Mitchell (1836 - 1907), founder and benefactor of the Mitchell Library in Sydney, Australia
• Andrew Torning (1814 - 1900), founder of the New South Wales Fire Brigade

Explore more about famous cemeteries

• Documenting Cemeteries with BillionGraves, Legacy Family Tree Webinars
• Cemetery Records Worldwide, BillionGraves, MyHeritage Catalog Collection
• The Seven Largest Cemeteries in the World, BillionGraves Blog
• Three Amazing Cemeteries, BillionGraves Blog
• London's Magnificent Seven Cemeteries, BillionGraves Blog
• 10 Cemeteries to See Before You Die, BillionGraves Blog
• 10 of the World's Most Beautiful Cemeteries, BillionGraves Blog
• Stories in Stone – Cemetery Research, Legacy Family Tree Webinars

References

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