St Thomas Rest Park

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St Thomas Rest Park
St Thomas Rest Park Crows Nest.JPG
Headstones and monuments in St Thomas' Rest Park
St Thomas Rest Park
Details
Established1845 (1845)(as a cemetery)
Location
CountryAustralia
TypeHistoric cemetery and urban park
Find a Grave St Thomas Rest Park
St Thomas Rest Park
Coordinates 33°49′26″S151°12′26″E / 33.824026°S 151.207271°E / -33.824026; 151.207271
Created1974 (1974)(as a park)
Operated by North Sydney Council (since 1967)
OpenOpen all hours
Website www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/Recreation_Facilities/Parks_Reserves/Search_Parks/St_Thomas_Rest_Park

St Thomas Rest Park, located in West Street, Crows Nest, New South Wales is the site of the first cemetery on Sydney's North Shore. It is the largest park in the densely populated Crows Nest area. [1]

Contents

Cemetery

Sexton's Cottage Museum (1)St Thomas Rest Park 006.jpg
Sexton's Cottage Museum
Tomb of Alexander Berry and his wife Elizabeth, plus Elizabeth's brother, Edward Wollstonecraft Berry Tomb in St Thomas Cemetery Crows Nest NSW.jpg
Tomb of Alexander Berry and his wife Elizabeth, plus Elizabeth's brother, Edward Wollstonecraft

The land that now contains the St Thomas' cemetery site was granted, in 1821, to Edward Wollstonecraft. [2] The land for the cemetery was donated to the Anglican Parish of St Leonards in 1845 by the prominent landowner and merchant, Alexander Berry, whose wife Elizabeth had inherited it on the death of her brother Edward Wollstonecraft. [3]

Wollstonecraft had died in 1832 and was buried in the Devonshire Street Cemetery. His remains were later moved to a tomb constructed in the St Thomas' Cemetery by Alexander Berry for his wife. Berry was also later entombed there. The tomb is still standing in the grounds of the Rest Park.

In 1967 the Cemetery was handed over to North Sydney Council by an Act of Parliament granting the area as 'community land' and allowing its conversion from a cemetery into a Rest Park. The new park opened in 1974. The sexton's cottage, dating from around 1850, was restored and opened as a museum in 1985. Many monuments and headstones are located within the sandstone-edged historic precincts while others are scattered around the Rest Park. An interpretive history trail provides 24-hour access to historical information. [1]

The cemetery contains one Commonwealth war grave, of an Australian Army officer, Capt. Richard Gordon Dibbs. [4] The Park contains the headstones of thirteen members of four generations of the Dibbs family, the oldest being Sophia Elizabeth Dibbs, born in Sydney in 1809, and mother of George Dibbs (grandson of George Dibbs, below) of World War II. [5]

Notable people buried in St Thomas' cemetery

See also

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References

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  2. State Library of New South Wales (1993). "Guide to the papers of the Berry, Wollstonecraft and Hay Families" (PDF). Retrieved 20 October 2009.
  3. "From Land Grant to Subdivision" (PDF). Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  4. "Images from the St Thomas' Cemetery Headstones Index Collection".
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