ROOKWOOD CEMETERY

'Rookwood Cemetery' (officially named 'Rookwood Necropolis') is the largest multicultural necropolis in the Southern Hemisphere, located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Rookwood is also considered to be a suburb, close to Lidcombe railway station about 17 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district.
The cemetery is divided into denominational and operational areas with individual offices, staff, and equipment to run different parts of the entire area. Currently, the following individual 'trusts' manage the cemetery on behalf of the NSW State Government: Anglican & General Cemetery Trusts, the Catholic Cemeteries Board, The Independent Cemetery Trust, Jewish Cemetery, Muslim Cemetery Trust, and, importantly, ''The NSW Cremation Company'', which founded and operates 'The Rookwood Crematorium', the oldest operating crematorium in the country. The ''NSW Cremation Company'' is the only private company operating a 'cemetery' section within the necropolis grounds, today the company is part of the ''Invocare'' company, with links to Service Corporation International of the USA.
It is estimated that approximately one million people have been buried at Rookwood, which covers an area of over 300 hectares. The "Friends of Rookwood Inc" is a volutary organistion deciated to preserving the site. As the largest Victorian era cemetery still in operation in the world, Rookwood is of significant national and historical importance.
Some older sections of Rookwood are overgrown with a riot of plants, early horticultural plants, some now large trees or groves, as well as an interesting array of remnant indigenous flora. This results in quite an eclectic mix of flora to be found within the necropolis.

Contents

History

The modern cemetery

Cultural References

References

External links

History

In 1818, Governor Lachlan Macquarie had Sydney's main burial ground established near the town's brickworks. By the 1840s, the Devonshire Street Cemetery was close to being full so another larger site was needed. A location near Randwick was chosen but abadoned in 1859 without ever being used due to complaints from local residents and churches. With a railway line having been completed to Parramatta in 1856, it was decided to locate the new cemetery at a point on the line. Several sites were surveyed and found to be inappropriate. However, in 1862 the government purchased 80 hectares of land at Haslem's Creek from the estate of Edward Cohen. Cohen's land had previously formed part of a larger parcel known as "Hyde Park" that had been given to the magistrate and parliamentarian Henry Grattan Douglas in 1833 and subsequently leased out. The site was approved due to its relative isolation and proximity to the railway line.
The cemetery was then divided into sections for the various denominations according to their numbers in the 1861 census. The Church of England section was 21 hectares, the Catholics were allocated 14 hectares and a non-denominational area of 23 hectares was also established. The Necropolis Act came into force on 1 January, 1868 and the cemetery was officially opened. By 1879, more land was needed and the remaining 233 hectares of the former "Hyde Park" were then purchased. By the 1890s the cemetery was home to several buildings including the St Michael the Archangel Chapel and various cottages for section managers and sextons.
Originally known simply as the Necropolis, local residents lobbied officials to have the name of their village changed from Haslem's Creek due to its association with the cemetery. In 1879 the villagers got their wish and the area's name was changed to Rookwood, however before long the Necropolis was also being referred to by that name. The settlement of Rookwood changed its name to Lidcombe (a combination of two mayors names, Lidbury and Larcombe - Larcombe was also a monumental stonemason whose business exists to this day) in 1913. The cemetery retained the name Rookwood.
Rookwood was served by a rail spur from the main line from 1867 until 1948. Mortuary stations served each of the three sections of the necropolis, with a fourth at the main junction and a fifth on Regent Street adjacent to Sydney Central Station. This rail line was used to convey funeral parties to Rookwood until 1948 when the expanded use of processions by road made it obsolete. The stations were offered to the Joint Committee of Necropolis Trustees for the price of £1 but due to maintenance costs the offer was rejected and the platforms within the cemetery were demolished. Cemetery Station No. 1^[1] at the head of the rail spur was sold to Reverend Buckle for £100 in 1951 and was moved to Canberra in 1957 to become the All Saints Church, Canberra.^[2]
The name Rookwood is most likely an accidental or deliberate corruption of the name Brookwood Cemetery and its associated railway station. At the time of Rookwood's opening, Brookwood Cemetery, located in Brookwood, Surrey, England, was one of the largest cemeteries in the world. It is less likely, however far more romantic, that, as claimed by some sources, Rookwood was named after William Harrison Ainsworth's novel ''Rookwood'', written in 1834¹.

The modern cemetery

Rookwood Cemetery is now managed by five demoninational Trusts, each of which is responsible for the care and maintenance of a number of burial sections catering to various ethnic and cultural groups within the community. It also contains a number of memorial shrines including those dedicated to victims of the Holocaust and to members of the merchant marine killed in wartime. The Sydney War Cemetery is located in the eastern section of the necropolis. The Circle of Love is a shrine dedicated to stillborn children or those who died in young infancy.
The Serpentine Canal within the Roman Catholic section was restored in recent years, repairing and replacing ornamentation, landscaping and vegatation over 31 hectares of the cemetery.

Cultural References

Rookwood Cemetery gave rise to the phrase "crook as Rookwood", meaning chronically ill, as "crook" is Australian slang for being unwell. A 2005 novel uses the phrase as its title^[3].

References

1. State Rail Authority of New South Wales Archives Section, ''How & Why of Station Names: meanings and origins...'', Second Edition, 1982, State Rail Authority of New South Wales
2. All Saints Church information
3. Novel published 2005: ''Crook as Rookwood''


★ Historic Rookwood Necropolis published by Strathfield District Historical Society

External links

★ Rookwood Cemetery

★ Roookwood Independent Cemetery

★ Friends of Rookwood Inc.