There are two cemeteries connected with Wallsend.
- Old Wallsend Cemetery: A 3 acre lot of land on Newcastle Rd, used for burials from 1863 to 1896. The “Old Wallsend Cemetery Act of 1953” legislated for the removal of headstones from the surface, and the conversion of the land into a park.
- Current Wallsend Cemetery: A 16 acre lot of land on Sandgate Rd, opened for burials in 1896 and still in use today.
For a detailed history of Old Wallsend Cemetery, see the introductory chapter of the Newcastle Family History Society publication “Old Wallsend Cemetery 1863-1896”. The society also produced a podcast episode on Old Wallsend Cemetery in 2025.
Old Wallsend Cemetery
The Newcastle Wallsend Coal Company was formed in November 1858, and the township of Wallsend rapidly grew as miners and their families moved to the area. By 1861 the residents were advocating for a cemetery to be formed near the town.
It is necessary that a cemetery should be formed near Wallsend. The rapidity with which the place is rising into importance demands immediate attention to this pressing want.
The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 7 September 1861.
A later article on Old Wallsend Cemetery stated that …
… it was in the year 1862 that the first steps were taken to secure a cemetery. It was not until 1864 that the Wallsend Company granted a piece of ground for burial purposes, but so urgent was the necessity that a number were buried in the land dedicated long before it was fenced or even cleared.
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 5 June 1902.
The Newcastle Chronicle reported on a burial in the Wallsend cemetery in August 1863.
One death has occurred here this week — the wife of a miner at the pits; she was buried in our cemetery. The fencing in of this place has not yet commenced, nor have we heard any further intelligence concerning the work. A few weeks since there was some talk of a clearing and stumping the ground, but like most other plans formed here for the good of the community, the subject has been dropped.
The Newcastle Chronicle and Hunter River District News, 26 August 1863.
By October 1866 one acre of ground had been cleared and fenced at the cemetery, but this was was soon used up.
In the absence of a general cemetery for the district, this one here is rapidly filling up. It will soon become necessary to enlarge it, and happily there, is plenty of land on each side that can be taken in.
The Newcastle Chronicle, 10 February 1872.
The cemetery was enlarged in 1873, probably to the full 3 acres granted by the Wallsend Company. Despite this tripling in size, space for burials was soon running short again and by 1886 there was a clear need for a new larger cemetery.
Various Friendly Societies have lately met in conference and decided that in view of the present Wallsend cemetery being shortly closed for want of space, an effort be made to obtain, either by gift or purchase, a suitable piece of land from the directors of the Wallsend Coal Company, about one mile outside the town limits, and near the road leading to Sandgate. There can be no two opinions as to the necessity of closing the present Wallsend cemetery, not only on account of its close proximity to the dwellings of the people, but from the fact that something like 4000 interments have already taken place in this land and it is almost impossible, I might safely say impossible, to visit the grave of any relative without walking on top of other graves.
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 27 October 1886.
A lack of space was not the only problem, as it appears that the old cemetery was not well maintained. A letter writer in September 1891 said “the condition of the
cemetery reflects discredit on the inhabitants of the town”, and another letter in October 1894 referred to it rather forcefully as “a disgrace to our civilisation.”
After much lobbying and agitation, in September 1894 the government decided to allocate 16 acres of land on the Wallsend to Sandgate Road for a new general cemetery. By June 1896 the new cemetery was ready for use and Wallsend Council passed by-laws prohibiting any further burials in the old cemetery.
In 1920 the land of the Old Wallsend Cemetery was transferred from the Newcastle Wallsend Coal Company to Wallsend Municipal Council.
After council took ownership of the old cemetery, the lack of maintenance was a cause for many recurring complaints.
It is a great pity that the old Wallsend Cemetery, on the Newcastle road, has been so neglected as to be an eyesore, and to those who have dear ones interred there it is a most deplorable state of affairs. To see the tombstones near the graves where they have fallen (most of them have been knocked down by straying cattle), and the railings of most of the wooden enclosures scattered about, makes it one of the worst forms of desecration.
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 29 June 1923.
With canting and tumbled-down head stones, and remnants of picket fencing at graves, the cemetery is an eyesore in a locality where many cottages of modern type have been erected in recent years, and with a view to obscuring the scene of desolation to visitors to the town a row of young camphor laurel trees has been planted on the Newcastle-road side of the area.
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 12 February 1930.
Charred and otherwise damaged post and-rail fencing, soiled and crumbling headstones–some still standing and others canting or lying flat – and a few scraggy old trees, behind camphor laurels, which have struggled for existence for years and have been more or less scorched by the fires, go to make a scene of desolation among many home properties with cottages.
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 27 January 1940.
In September 1943, Newcastle Alderman H Scott-Daisley suggested that the problem of the cemetery be solved by converting it into a children’s playing area. His suggestion was met with mixed responses. In September 1947 Newcastle Council made application to the State Government to convert the cemetery into a recreation reserve, but the matter stalled until 1950 when council again pursued the idea.
A new move to have the disused cemetery in Newcastle-road, Wallsend, converted into a rest park, garden area and children’s play ground has been made by Newcastle City Council. The Town Clerk (Mr. Burges) has advised the Under Secretary for Lands (Mr. A. R. Jones) that the council is anxious to have the matter completed, and asked for the submission of draft legislation to Cabinet soon.
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 31 March 1950.
After a few more years the government finally passed the Old Wallsend Cemetery Act of 1953 for the conversion of the cemetery to a public park. The legislation mandated that …
At least three months before any headstones, grave enclosures, or other surface structures are removed by the Council an advertisement of the intention to remove the same shall be inserted four times at intervals of not less than two weeks in newspapers circulating in the locality. Representatives of any person buried in the said land may, at their own expense, remove the headstone, grave enclosure or other surface structure erected over the grave of such person or may, at their own expense, and with the permission of the Director-General of Public Health, remove to such cemetery as they desire, the remains of such person.
Despite this mandate there is no evidence that these advertisements were ever placed, and no evidence that any headstones or remains were moved from Old Wallsend cemetery to another cemetery.
It is not clear exactly when the conversion of the cemetery to a park was completed. Headlines from the Newcastle Morning Herald on 24 October 1956 (“Rest park plan for cemetery”), and 3 November 1956 (“Cemetery to be rest park”), suggest that the conversion still had not occurred by then. By 1958 the naming of the park was in the news, with a headline on 9 July 1957 of “Deadlock on name for rest park – Wallsend”. The deadlock appears to have been resolved by the following year, with a 13 June 1959 headline, “Agreement on old cemetery rest park.”
According to Newcastle Council’s Land Register Statutory Report of February 2020, the official name of the area is “Old Cemetery Park”.
Current Wallsend Cemetery
In September 1894 the government decided to allocate 16 acres of land on the Wallsend to Sandgate Road for a new general cemetery, although the land was only officially gazetted on 17 October 1896. The new cemetery opened on 28 June 1896.
