Cemeteries

There have been three cemeteries in Fremantle, one of which is still in use. The first was Alma Street, which was followed by Skinner Street, and now there is only Fremantle Cemetery.

There have been three Fremantle cemeteries, the first two now known by the names of nearby streets, while the third, on Carrington Street, is the present Fremantle Cemetery. Before 1831, there were two Town Lots reserved as burial ground on Market Street, between Bannister and Nairn Streets, Lots 433 and 448.

Alma Street Cemetery was in use 1831-1855.

Skinner Street Cemetery operated 1852-1899, Vale Street.

Fremantle Cemetery, Carrington Street, was opened in 1898.

Bon Scott's memorial in Fremantle Cemetery: a much-visited spot. It is so popular that a dedicated gate was constructed in the cemetery perimeter near the memorial so that fans need not go through other parts of the cemetery to get there.

Heritage Week tour May 2018. In 2019 two different tours on Saturdays 4 and 11 May.

References and Links

MCB search page: search for a gravesite here.

Spreadsheet of registers of deceased persons transcribed from church records, mostly related to Alma and Skinner St Cemeteries (Excel doc: xls) - file created by Fremantle Library staff mostly from the [[../people/caldwell.html|Kate Caldwell]] transcriptions from parish records. The same data as in this PDF (courtesy of the City Library).

Page showing an 1830 burial ground in Market St, in the West End of Fremantle.

Berryman, Ian 1979 ed., A Colony Detailed: The First Census of Western Australia 1832, Creative Research, Perth.

Bodycoat, Ron 1992, East Perth Cemeteries Conservation Plan: Prepared for National Trust of Australia (WA), Perth.

Errington, Steve 2017, [[../fhs/fs/9/Errington.html|'Fremantle 1829-1832: an illustrated history']], Fremantle Studies, 9: 15-29 (re the Market St burial ground).

Page about [[../people/caldwell.html|Kate Caldwell]], possibly showing one page of her transcription of burial records, together with one page of Graham Bown's.

Liveris, Leonie B. 1991, Dismal Trader: The Undertaker Business in Perth 1860-1939, privately published.

Liveris, Leonie B. 2009, Monuments and Masons: Cemeteries at Karrakatta Fremantle Guildford Midland, MCB.

The East Perth Cemetery was surveyed in 1829 and the first interment was 6 January 1830. It was closed in 1899 (tho some burials continued until 1916). Burials at Karrakatta Cemetery commenced in 1899.

de Mouncey, P.E.C. 1930, 'Early deaths', The Western Australian Historical Society Journal & Proceedings, 1930, vol. I, part VIII, pp. 23-26 (online in DPS); this is only part of the paper, the whole of which I have put online [[../earlydays/1/mouncey3.html|here]].

The photo in the banner (top) shows the headstone of Sarah John nee Woodland (1835-1884) in the former Skinner Street Cemetery.

See also: [[../undertakers/|funeral directors]].

See also: [[../quiz/quiz1cemeteries.html|cemeteries quiz]] (hard).

Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 11 December, 2015 and hosted at freotopia.org/cemeteries/index.html (it was last updated on 8 August, 2023). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.