The Reinterment of Devonshire Street Cemetery
Established in 1820, Devonshire Street Cemetery was the main burial ground in Sydney until the passing of the Sydney Burial Grounds Act in 1866. Under the Act, interments in Sydney burial grounds were discontinued in an attempt to protect public health.
Only those who had existing family vaults or previously purchased plots could apply to the NSW Government for a licence to bury their family members in Sydney. A few decades later, in 1901, the cemetery was resumed by the state to make way for Sydney’s Central Railway Station, and the government began the process of liaising with relatives of the deceased over the exhumation and reinterment of their loved ones.
Join us for this webinar exploring records from the NSW State Archives Collection that reveal the history of one of Sydney’s oldest burial grounds and the mammoth job of reinterring those buried there to allow for the construction of Central Railway Station.
- Friday 24 April 10.30am–11.30am
Related
Devonshire Street Cemetery reinterment index
There are 9000+ entries to search. The Register covers details of remains, and in some cases monuments, from Devonshire Street Cemetery following its resumption to make way for the development of Central Railway Station
Devonshire Street cemetery
On 22 January 1820 the Sydney Gazette published a notice about the creation of a new cemetery on Devonshire Street in Sydney
