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  3. Old cemetery Devonshire Street c1900

Old cemetery Devonshire Street c1900

By
John Henry Harvey
Image courtesy of the
State Library of Victoria
[H13953 p15 (detail)]
(Album of views of Victoria, New South Wales, and Tasmania c1890-1910)

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Death and dying in nineteenth century Sydney Funeral trains
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Devonshire Street Cemetery

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Harvey, John Henry

State Library of Victoria

The State Library of Victoria is contributing items from its multimedia collection

Death and dying in nineteenth century Sydney

In the newly settled colony, cemeteries were an important cultural institution in which the social order could be established and a person's identity within the community could be defined. Through the trappings of the funeral, statements of status, class and religion were constructed and inscribed upon the cemetery landscape.

Funeral trains

By the 1840s, Sydney's Devonshire Street cemetery was nearing capacity so planning commenced for a new cemetery at Haslems Creek. From 1867 through to 1948, a branch from the Parramatta to Sydney line brought mourners and coffins into the Rookwood Necropolis, with grand sandstone mortuary stations at both ends.

Cemeteries

Devonshire Street Cemetery

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Burial ground established in 1820 on the outskirts of colonial Sydney to replace the earlier burial ground on George Street. It was the city's main burial ground until the opening of Rookwood Cemetery. It officially closed in 1867, although people who had family vaults or previously purchased plots were still being buried there until much later. Also referred to as the Sandhills Cemetery due to its proximity to sandhills, it was resumed in 1901 to enable the building of Central Railway Station.