Waverley Cemetery
The Waverley Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery on top of the cliffs at Bronte in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Opened in 1877 and built by R. Watkins and P. Beddie, the cemetery is noted for its largely intact Victorian and Edwardian monuments. It is regularly cited as being one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world. The cemetery contains the graves of many significant Australians including the poet Henry Lawson. Also known as General Cemetery Waverley, it was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 28 October 2016.
The cemetery is owned by Waverley Council and is self-funded, deriving its income from interments – including burial, cremation, memorials and mausolea – of which there has been over 86,000. Waverley Cemetery was used during the filming of the 1979 Mel Gibson film Tim and in 2021 the film Long Story Short. The cemetery was designed to function along similar lines to Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris and Kensal Green Cemetery in London.
Funerals are conducted Monday to Saturday.
History
Indigenous history
The land on which Waverley Cemetery is located is traditionally the land of the Cadigal people of the Eora nation. As with most Aboriginal groups in Australia prior to European colonisation, the Cadigal people lived a traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle that utilised the natural resources available in their environment to achieve the physical and spiritual nourishment to sustain their way of life. Evidence of the areas occupation by the Cadigal people is demonstrated in both archaeological and non-archaeological forms. Today, the Waverley area is a densely populated and urban environment and, although Waverley Cemetery is not known to contain identified Aboriginal sites, its cliff top environment is regarded as archaeologically sensitive as it is considered likely to contain sites of Aboriginal significance.Colonial history
European exploration into the coastal region of eastern Sydney commenced in the early 19th century when the establishment of a military outpost at South Head and the completion of the first roadway to the South Head Lighthouse gave settlers their first cursory view of the coastal landscape of the new colony. The opening up of the region soon saw the allocation of early land grants to prominent settlers in the locality.In the early years of the colony, the first cemetery was established on the outskirts of the town on the site of today's Sydney Town Hall. At the time of its selection and development in the 1790s, the Old Sydney Burial Ground reflected the attitudes of the European colonists of the period towards death and burial – essentially relegating cemeteries to the periphery of the colony out of fear of ill-health, disease and contamination from the dead. At this time, cemeteries were a necessity and not a place of remembrance and commemoration.
By 1820, the Old Sydney Burial Ground was considered full and a new cemetery was laid out at Devonshire Street, today's Sydney's Central railway station. Soon enough, by the middle of the century, this cemetery too was at capacity and an alternative location for the Sydney Necropolis was sought. In keeping with common social values, Haslem's Creek was selected as the new location in 1862. Sited on the outskirts of both the Sydney and Parramatta settlements, Haslem's Creek was also served by the main western railway line. The relocation of burial services away from central Sydney soon caused difficulties for those living along the eastern coastline and those residents quickly became reliant on St. Jude's Anglican Church, Randwick. Although a cemetery was planned from the 1840s, interments did not take place at South Head General Cemetery until 1869.
Waverley Municipal Council, itself only proclaimed in 1859, soon recognised that a general cemetery was needed to service the developing community of the eastern suburbs and, in 1868, reserved A£1,200 to purchase for the establishment of the cemetery. Although the selected land remained on the periphery of the community, social attitudes towards death and burial had shifted by this time, away from those held during the early years of the colony. Society now desired picturesque, garden-like spaces where people could visit, remember and commemorate those who had passed. Cemeteries were no longer to be dark and forbidding places, avoided out of fear and paranoia. Following the purchase of a further, Waverley Cemetery was formally opened on 1 August 1877 and its first interment, took place on the afternoon of 4 August 1877. From its first intimations, Waverley Cemetery was to be a grand metropolitan cemetery honouring the high moral standard and respect of the Victorian era and it would reflect the social prosperity of the Waverley community.
To manage the operation of the new facility, William Thomas was appointed as the first manager of Waverley Cemetery in 1877. Responsible for its day-to-day operation, Thomas conducted the development of the cemetery in accordance with a strict set of bylaws that governed its objectives with particular regard to style, layout and colours of headstones, grave sites and funerary furniture.
Laid out professionally as a cemetery of the Victorian style and with its recurring use of ethereally white Italian Carrara marble, Waverley Cemetery soon resembled a strategic collection of individual memorials that portrayed a cohesive and unified visual character. Perhaps because of this visually pleasing effect when coupled with its dramatic natural setting, the cemetery proved to be highly popular with the community and its establishment costs were recovered entirely within the first year.
In the years following its establishment and with the extension of the steam tramway to the site in 1890, Waverley Cemetery expanded with the acquisition of a further of land and by 1894 the cemetery had grown to its present size of bounded by Trafalgar, Boundary and St Thomas streets. It also saw the construction of a number of built elements on the site including the Caretaker's House, Cemetery Lodge, Waiting Room, Cemetery Gates, shelters, external fencing, sandstone walling and grounds terracing.
Commenced in 1898 and completed by 1901, a substantial memorial to the 1798 Irish Rebellion was constructed at the cemetery. A large and imposing monument of white Carrara marble, intricately decorated with sculptures, plaques, inscriptions, medallions and mosaic and topped with a 30-foot carved cross, the monument was to be a testament to Ireland's struggle for self-government and its patriots who fought in the rebellion. Designed by John Hennessy of architectural firm Sherrin and Hennessy, the memorial is the largest monument to the rebellion in the world. Elevating it to a somewhat sacred status, the memorial contains the interred remains of the leader of the revolution movement, Michael Dwyer and his wife Mary. Originally buried at Sydney's Sandhills Cemetery, the Dwyers were exhumed and reinterred at Waverley Cemetery in 1898. Attended by some 100,000 people, the relocation and interment of the Dwyers was the largest gathering of any 1798 rebellion centenary event in the world.
Waverley Cemetery continued to expand throughout the 20th century, both in numbers and architectural diversity. The grand Victorian era of its establishment slowly morphed into the humbler Edwardian times which saw the introduction of cremation services to the cemetery. Its ongoing use also saw the installation of a substantial collection of funerary monuments that ranged in fashion and style, reflecting the cultural diversity and social values of the people of NSW.
The Great Depression and the world wars bought further change to the cemetery and to the monuments and memorials that were being installed.
Over its lifetime, Waverley Cemetery has received numerous high-achieving, famous and notable people from across NSW, Australia and the world, including: Henry Lawson ; Henry Kendall ; Dorothea Mackellar ; Jules François Archibald ; Sir Frances Forbes ; Sarah "Fanny" Durack ; William Dymock ; Nicholas Weekes ; John Fingleton OBE and Lawrence Hargrave.
Waverley Cemetery continues to be an operational burial facility today. Its naturally picturesque and urban location has made it a particularly sought after and desirable cemetery and it now contains more than 100,000 burials and interments.
Major coastal storms over a weekend in June 2016 led to the collapse of some 77,000m2 of fill in the gully in the centre of the cemetery. The Bondi-to-Bronte coastal walk through the cemetery was closed but has reopened, but the original route hugging the cliff face has been changed for safety concerns.
Environment & Heritage Minister Mark Speakman announced on 23 October 2016 the State Heritage Register listing of Waverley Cemetery. "Waverley Cemetery is the final resting place of many prominent Australians, Mr Speakman said. " Poets Henry Lawson and Dorothea Mackellar...Olympic gold medal swimmer Sarah "Fanny" Durack and cricket batsman Victor Trumper are all buried in Waverley'. Member for Coogee Bruce Notley-Smith said the heritage listing would be warmly received by the eastern suburbs community.
In April 2017 the 1922 Sir Charles Wade memorial was restored with grant funding from the NSW government, and Waverley Council secured a community war memorial fund grant to do a conservation assessment of the 1894 Middle Head Submarine Mine Explosion Monument.
Description
Waverley Cemetery is uniquely positioned on an elevated urban site overlooking the Tasman Sea to the east and the Waverley townscape to the west. Spanning some 16 hectares, Waverley Cemetery retains much of its Victorian layout and geometric grid-like pattern of burials.Despite its suburban environment, Waverley Cemetery is dominated by its cliff top location and its expansive views to the ocean and horizon. The contrast of the natural and man-made elements combine to create a picturesque setting for the cemetery.
Containing over 90,000 burials and interments, Waverley Cemetery is dominated by white marble monuments and headstones from the mid-to-late 19th century as well as a selection of later funerary furniture that demonstrate the changing social values and attitudes towards death it has experienced during its operation. The cemetery also contains various additions to older elements for example the Circle Garden containing interment of ashes created in a former garden area.
Inside its boundaries, the cemetery forms its own enclosed townscape where, apart from the ocean view to the east, all other major views are within the cemetery itself across its own landscape and monuments. This occurs because the cemetery occupies a valley and two adjacent ridges. Major monuments and memorials within Waverley Cemetery are situated at key points such as at the junction of main roads and pathways and other key vantage points at the edge of cemetery sections. Major monuments prominent in the landscape include the 1798 Memorial; the Governor Duff monument; the Henry Kendall monument; the Johnston family vault; the Greek Revival monument to Sir James Martin; and the Chowder Bay Monument.
The 1798 Memorial has a central theme of martyrdom. The architect's brief called for "a monument in Irish architecture" to the memory of the 1798 rebels. The design was on an imposing scale calculated to make a strong impact. The design was also heavily influenced by the chairman of the organising committee Dr Charles MacCarthy, who was an award-winning sculptor, painter, musician and writer. The base of the memorial is wide and deep. The back wall rises above the ground and the height of the cross is. The main material is Carrara marble. The rear wall is decorated with bronze plaques and the floor has mosaic pictures of thatched cottages and round towers. Commemorations are conducted inside the memorial which effectively forms a "church sanctuary" or stage while onlookers gather on the surrounding driveways and paths. The monument was erected by Ross and Bowman. The memorial is located in the centre of Waverley Cemetery, facing north at the end of a main driveway.
Another individual monument of significance is the Stuart family vault. Dating from 1914 to 1916 this is a surviving work from the partnership of Walter Burley Griffin, Marion Mahony Griffin and J. Burcham Clamp. James Stuart was the founding partner of Stuart Brothers, master builders. The tomb is situated on a prominent junction at the terminal point of two large retaining walls. Built of granite the vault features gothic detailing with a pyramindal roof form built from slabs of stone. Twin doors in heavy bronze face the ocean on the eastern side of the vault. These are cast with a prismatic pattern that at head height forms a double set of diamond shaped vents. The doors are flanked by polished granite tablets with gilded inscriptions to the memory of members of the Stuart family. Other detailing includes buttresses with lancet tracery and more prismatic patterning around the cornice of the vault. There is a granite urn near the entry doors. On the western wall a round ended cross is formed by the intersection of four granite blocks, which also provides ventilation for the vault.
Waverley Cemetery contains a number of early buildings, independent structures and built elements. The cemetery office, residence and amenities building are located at the entrance of the cemetery while a number of shelters are within the cemetery itself. The cemetery also contains substantial sandstone retaining walls and terracing, pathways, and remnants of sandstone road kerbing and guttering. The cemetery also retains key landscape elements including mature Norfolk Island Pines on the boundaries, Canary Island Date Palms within the cemetery and numerous remnant historic shrubs and grave plantings and more recently established garden areas.