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.[1] Managed by the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board, the cemetery attracts more than one million visitors each year.[2]Cypress trees located near the main entrance are a hallmark of Karrakatta Cemetery.[2][3] The cemetery contains a crematorium, and in 1995 Western Australia's first mausoleum opened at the site.[2]
The entrance (known as the Waiting House) includes a structure designed by George Temple-Poole.[4]
Redevelopment
According to community group "Saving Family Headstones at Karrakatta" (SFH@K), a redevelopment program—referred to by the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board (MCB) as Cemetery Renewal—has been under way at Karrakatta Cemetery since 1970.
SFH@K reports that more than 45 sections have already been cleared and that dozens more are listed for future schemes. The group describes redevelopment as the mass removal of headstones, grave surrounds and plot numbers to create space for new graves, mausoleums and cremation memorial gardens. Removed monuments may be relocated, fixed to new walls or destroyed, while grave surrounds are sometimes reused as garden edging.
For many years almost all new graves at Karrakatta have been dug between existing burials in redeveloped sections, leaving no memorial on the original plots. SFH@K states that all mausoleums and most cremation gardens are built directly over earlier graves.
The MCB maintains that "no human remains are disturbed" during redevelopment. SFH@K notes that this assurance is disputed by individuals with cemetery management experience.
SFH@K argues that redevelopment severs historical links by removing monuments and primarily benefits government revenue and the funeral industry rather than meeting a genuine shortage of burial space. The group highlights that the MCB operates five other metropolitan cemeteries with available plots and that a 38‑hectare cemetery reserve at Whitby, set aside in 2012, remains undeveloped.
In 2018 market research commissioned by the MCB found that only 28 per cent of the community was aware of redevelopment.
SFH@K cites Part V Division 4 of Western Australia’s Cemeteries Act 1986,[5] which permits cemetery boards to implement "redevelopment schemes" within existing burial areas.[6]
War graves
As of June2022[update], Karrakatta Cemetery contains the graves of 111 Commonwealth service personnel of World War I and 141 of World War II, besides a Dutch naval sailor of the latter war, divided between the cemetery's various denominational plots.[7]
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) has a memorial to 15 Australian service personnel–2 sailors, 9 soldiers, 4 airmen–who died in World War II and were cremated at Karrakatta Crematorium.[8] In addition, 7 Australian personnel of the same war–2 sailors, 4 soldiers, 1 airman–who were cremated at Karrakatta Crematorium but whose ashes had been scattered or buried at places where CWGC commemoration was not possible are listed by name on the Western Australia Cremation Memorial at the separate Perth War Cemetery.[9]
Notable people
Notable people interred within Karrakatta Cemetery include:
Jessie Argyle, an Aboriginal Western Australian woman who led a community space for Aboriginal people[10]
↑ Trinca, Mathew. "James Andrew (Jim) del Piano (1916–1981)". del Piano, James Andrew (Jim) (1916–1981). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. Retrieved 1 July 2010.
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