Established in 1898, it is known as the final resting place of Bon Scott, several murderers and dozens of other notable Australians. There have been over 60,000 cremations and over 40,000 burials there. The grave of Scott, the AC/DC singer, has been said to be the most visited grave in Australia.
History
Fremantle Cemetery covers 46ha (110 acres) and dates to 1898.[1]
It is the third public cemetery in Fremantle. The first was in Alma Street, which closed in 1855 and is now a primary school.[2]
The second, at Skinner Street, started in 1852 and was operating until 1899, when this cemetery was already open. Burials were transferred by families from earlier cemeteries to here, including Mary Anne Morrell who died in 1832. Hers is one of the oldest gravestones and was moved here from Alma Street by her family in 1915. In 1930 ninety other gravestones were moved from Skinner Street to here. The Skinner Street cemetery is now the location of the Oval belonging to the John Curtin College of the Arts, where it is estimated 200 bodies still remain.[3] Over 40,000 burials have taken place at this cemetery.[4] For its first sixty years the cemetery was dedicated to burials but in 1959 a crematorium was opened here which allowed an alternative to those who preferred it. Over 66,000 cremations have taken place here.[4]
Description
The cemetery often uses limestone in its buildings, which reflects the town's convict-built architecture.
The cemetery is on the corner of Carrington Street and Leach Highway.[1]
The grave of Bon Scott is a much visited national monument.
The cemetery has a trail that visitors can use to explore its heritage. The first grave on the trail is that of Saverio Pensabene, a poor local fisherman, who had his boat sequestered during WWII because he was an Italian. He became rich after the war when lobsters became fashionable.
The second grave, that of former AC/DC lead singer Bon Scott, has been reported as the most visited grave in Australia.[5] Many AC/DC pilgrims come to the cemetery to "have a beer with Bon" as seen in the movie Thunderstruck.[5] Its plaque has been stolen several times, and the visitors often leave ephemera like CDs by way of respect. The plaque, a bench and Scott's remains are an Australian National Monument.[6]
Sir Henry Briggs became President of the Legislative Council.
The third notable grave is Sir Henry Briggs, a headmaster who went into politics.[7]
Mary Ann Morrell is mentioned because of her gravestone's age, whilst the next is partially important because of the gravestone's height. The tall granite and marble memorial to Percival Mulligan was imported from Italy by the grieving parents of this young speedway star. The memorial is over 4.5 metres tall and is said to have cost the same as a house.[8]
Thomas Clarke Edwards had the largest funeral witnessed after an over-enthusiastic policeman hit him whilst he was at a protest that turned into the 1919 Fremantle Wharf riot.[9]
Henry Vincent was at the other end of the spectrum. He was a cruel gaoler of aboriginal prisoners on Rottnest Island. He was buried here in 1867.
George Bland Humble was a respected headmaster who was later driven from his job by a mayor. Humble stood against him at the next election but was defeated. He was a member of the Fremantle Cemetery board and is said to have spent weeks planning his own funeral.[10]
Eric Cooke and Martha Rendell were both hanged for multiple murders.
Martha Rendell was infamous as the only woman in Western Australia to hang for her crimes. She was convicted of sadistically killing her own stepchildren. Eric Edgar Cooke was a serial killer who was the last person to be hanged in Western Australia. He confessed to two murders that eventually led to two innocent men being released with pardons.[11]
Ivan Fredericks was a humble miner known as Russian Jack. He pushed his injured mate 30 miles in a wheelbarrow. His noble acts led to him being honoured by the Russian Orthodox church after his death.[12]
The eleventh notable grave is that of Bartholomew Daly who was a councillor and contractor in South Fremantle.[13] His wake, organised by his six sons, is said to be a local legend.
John Smyth was a simple priest but he has a large Celtic cross paid for by his parishioners.[8] He died poor whereas William Edward Marmion was a successful businessman who founded W E Marmion & Co.[14]
Karol Tapci was hanged for murder, but there is suspicion that he was harshly sentenced for being a foreigner.
Joseph Francis Allen was an East Fremantle mayor who also designed East Fremantle's Town Hall. He died in unexplained circumstances. Elias Solomon was a politician. Lionel Samson was a successful Jewish businessman and his grandson Sir Frederick Samson was known as "Mr Fremantle". Mary Higham was a local widow who became a successful businesswoman despite having to send her sons to meetings she could not attend due to sexual discrimination.[8]
Joseph Johnston was a clergyman who had a church named after him[10] whereas John Bateman and his son Walter Bateman created a hardware business. Annie Jane Sheehy was a nurse and midwife whereas Ernest Alexander Ryan was just a robber who married underworld boss Kate Leigh at a wedding celebrated in Fremantle in 1950.
William Watson was a wealthy and generous man who went into politics as an independent,[8] but was not as successful as Alexander McCallum who was a party man and became a deputy premier. He had the first state funeral in Western Australia for 40 years when he died in 1937.[15]
William Dalgety Moore built a number of important local buildings.[16] The next person is an escapologist: Moondyne Joe escaped capture a number of times and died in a lunatic asylum. Brian William Robinson was the last, but one, person to be hanged for murder in 1964.[11]James Lilly was a businessman who poisoned himself.[8]
Fred Instone was a businessman and Fremantle councillor.[17] Civil engineer C Y O'Connor was driven to suicide by unfounded speculation about his integrity. He shot himself on horseback, with Australian politicians being seen as the cause.[18]
The Shipwreck Memorial
Memorial 32 is to shipwrecks in general and to that of the City of York in 1899, in which two tall ships were lost on the same night.
The 33rd is to Daniel Scott who was the first chair of the Fremantle town trust, and Jane Francis Scott, his daughter who died aged two. Her gravestone had an unusual story as it was found being used as a hearth and was only returned to the cemetery years after Jane's death. The last notable burial was for William and Elizabeth Adams. Elizabeth was a midwife and William was a whaler who served as a soldier at the Battle of Waterloo.[8]
Curiosity
The cemetery also houses the mortal remains of Laszlo Toth, responsible for the vandalization of the Michelangelo's Pietà.
Commonwealth war graves
The cemetery contains the war graves of 120 Commonwealth service personnel of World War I and 21 of World War II. The city had a major naval base served by the cemetery.[19]
Notable cremations
On 9 February 2008, following the death of actor Heath Ledger, his remains were cremated at Fremantle Cemetery; a funeral for ten members of his immediate family followed, and his ashes were scattered in a family plot at Karrakatta Cemetery, in Perth.[20]
The ashes of Royal New Zealand Air Force Group Captain Leonard Trent (1915–1986), a World War II Victoria Cross recipient, who died in New Zealand, were brought for burial in this cemetery,[21] alongside those of his daughter, Judith, who had predeceased him.[22]
Related Research Articles
A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect the dead, from interment, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor. Customs vary between cultures and religious groups. Funerals have both normative and legal components. Common secular motivations for funerals include mourning the deceased, celebrating their life, and offering support and sympathy to the bereaved; additionally, funerals may have religious aspects that are intended to help the soul of the deceased reach the afterlife, resurrection or reincarnation.
Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000, and the crematorium was opened in 1902 by Sir Henry Thompson.
Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objects in it, and covering it over. A funeral is a ceremony that accompanies the final disposition. Evidence suggests that some archaic and early modern humans buried their dead. Burial is often seen as indicating respect for the dead. It has been used to prevent the odor of decay, to give family members closure and prevent them from witnessing the decomposition of their loved ones, and in many cultures it has been seen as a necessary step for the deceased to enter the afterlife or to give back to the cycle of life.
Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
An unmarked grave is one that lacks a marker, headstone, or nameplate indicating that a body is buried there. However, in cultures that mark burial sites, the phrase unmarked grave has taken on a metaphorical meaning.
St John the Baptist Anglican Church is an active Anglican church located between Alt and Bland Streets, Ashfield, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1840, on land donated by Elizabeth Underwood, the church building is the oldest authenticated surviving building in Ashfield, having been built at the time when subdivision increased the population density sufficiently to turn Ashfield into a town. It was also the first church built along the Parramatta Road which linked the early colonial towns of Sydney and Parramatta. The earliest remaining parts of the building are one of the first Sydney designs by the colonial architect Edmund Blacket, who later became renowned for his ecclesiastical architecture.
Karrakatta Cemetery is a metropolitan cemetery in the suburb of Karrakatta in Perth, Western Australia. Karrakatta Cemetery first opened for burials in 1899, the first being that of wheelwright Robert Creighton. Managed by the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board, the cemetery attracts more than one million visitors each year. Cypress trees located near the main entrance are a hallmark of Karrakatta Cemetery. The cemetery contains a crematorium, and in 1995 Western Australia's first mausoleum opened at the site.
Walter Bateman was a Fremantle merchant who was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from 1867 to 1870.
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St. James' Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the oldest cemetery in Toronto that is still in use, having opened in 1844. It was originally the burial ground for the Cathedral Church of St. James, but it later became non-denominational. The main entrance to the cemetery is located at 635 Parliament Street, north of Wellesley Street East. Just to the west is the St. James Town neighbourhood, which is named after the cemetery.
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William Dalgety Moore was a businessman in Fremantle, Western Australia, and also a pastoralist and politician.
Daniel Scott was a Western Australian harbour-master. Originally from Liverpool, England, he moved to the newly established Swan River Colony in 1829. Scott was the first chair of the Fremantle Town Trust in 1848. In addition to his civic and harbour duties, he was involved with launching a number of enterprises in early Western Australia, including the first whaling business, the first ship builders, and a lead mining business.
John Bateman was an early colonist at Fremantle. He was the postmaster, general store owner and an investor in the Fremantle Whaling Company. The suburb of Bateman is named after him and his family.
John Joseph Higham (1856–1927) was the Western Australian Legislative Assembly Member for Fremantle from 1896 to 1904.
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