The cemetery site was surveyed by
John Septimus Roe on 24 December 1829 soon after the central portions of the Perth townsite had been surveyed. The area was originally known as
Cemetery Hill and was established in 1830. The first burial was of Private John Mitchell from the
63rd regiment. Mitchell died on 6 January 1830; the exact location of his grave site is unknown. A public notice from
Peter Broun, the
Colonial Secretary on 13 February 1830 said: "to prevent indiscriminate Burials and unpleasant consequences arising therefrom in a warm climate, a Burial Ground will be set apart in Every Township or Parish ... burials will take place in them only and a Register will be kept ... all Burials by the Chaplain will be restricted to times as soon after sunrise as possible, or an hour precisely before sunset..." As it happened, both Broun and Roe were buried in the cemetery and their tombstones are still visible. The Trustees of the
Church of England were granted Perth Town Lot R1 as a general cemetery in 1842. The cemetery was
consecrated in 1848, and over the following decades sections of this were granted to various other denominations and ethnic groups with each cemetery being owned and controlled separately. The subsequent grants were:
Roman Catholic (1848); "
Wesleyanism" (i.e.
Methodist; 1854);
Congregational (1854); "
Hebrew" (i.e.
Jewish 1867);
Presbyterian (1881); and
Chinese (1888). Each of the grants were administered independently, with the exception of the Chinese section. In 1899,
Karrakatta Cemetery became the main burial ground in close proximity to Perth, and from July that year burials officially ceased at East Perth, except where special applications were made to use family graves. The cemetery was used intermittently from then until the last burial in 1919. Throughout most of the 1900s, the grounds, which adjoined an industrial area, were subject to vandalism and neglect. Appeals from individuals and the
Royal Western Australian Historical Society for it to be refurbished given its historical significance continued over some time. In 1931,
the Sunday Times reported: In the 1930s, the various church authorities relinquished control of the individual grants and the entire site was then re-vested as
Crown land and declared a disused burial ground. From the mid-1930s, control and responsibility for the grounds moved between various government departments and numerous projects were undertaken to refurbish the historic site. Much of the area devoted to the Chinese, Jewish and Presbyterian sections was originally located west of Plain Street, and an unused Anglican section was located south of Bronte Street. In the late 1940s, these sections were excised and existing headstones removed. Some land west of Plain Street was used by the former
Perth Girls' School. Fences separating the individual cemeteries were removed and those areas are now roadways, carparks and commercial and residential buildings. An access road called
Forrest Avenue (previously
Cemetery Road) crossed diagonally over the block which now houses the multi-storey
Don Aitken Centre. Extensions of Wickham and Horatio Streets have been incorporated into the grounds. A major redevelopment project in the late 1980s provided for landscaping and perimeter fencing to protect the church and remaining monuments from vandalism. In 1994, the
National Trust of Western Australia became responsible for the management and conservation of the East Perth Cemeteries after being approached by the
Department of Conservation and Land Management. The East Perth Cemeteries are significant for the following reasons: • the place is a rare surviving group of colonial cemeteries which have retained a high degree of integrity and authenticity within the central business district of an Australian capital city • the place is associated with the growth of Perth from a small colonial community to a thriving metropolis and contains the graves from a cross-section of its first colonists from the 1830s–1890s. The place is also associated with a number of public servants and religious leaders who were important to the development of colonial Perth • the place displays the changes in headstone and cemetery design between 1830–1899 and holds important genealogical information on many Western Australian families • the place contains the only mortuary chapel, constructed in Western Australia, which was later converted to function as a parish church and, • the place offers a landscape setting and experience of isolation, tranquility and simplicity that provides a rare contrast to the more verdant, intensely developed public landscapes within the City of Perth. The National Trust of Australia (WA) is responsible for conservation works, landscape maintenance and education and learning programs for local schools. The Trust is reliant on grants for ongoing conservation works and also has the support of valued volunteers who act as guides and assist with conservation, maintenance and managing burial records. Much of the retained burial ground lacks visible signs of graves or markers, partly because perishable timber crosses and monuments were used for burials of the poor. ==St Bartholomew's Church==