Lost Railways:
Rookwood Cemetery Branch Line
Rookwood Cemetery was created in 1868 and has some of the most prestigious, if not somewhat haunting, family vaults anywhere in the world. When it opened, Rookwood Cemetery was officially named The Necropolis (meaning City of the Dead ), Haslams Creek. At over 314 hectares it is the largest multicultural necropolis in the Southern Hemisphere that documents the cultural and religious diversity of the Australian community. It is also the largest active Victorian cemetery in the world. More than a million people have been buried at Rookwood since it opened in the 1860s. It is so large that it had to be divided up and run by different organisations, so one should think of Rookwood as several different cemeteries all in one place.Various groups conduct tours which visit the graves of people of note. These include John Gowing, co-founder of Gowings store; David Jones, founder of David Jones stores; Kenneth Slessor, poet; James Toohey, brewer; Jimmy Governor, outlaw; Peter Dodds McCormick, songwriter (Advance Australia Fair); Louisa Lawson, suffragette; Lilian Fowler, Australia s first female mayor; Bea Miles, well-known Sydney eccentric; Jack Lang, former Premier of New South Wales; Joseph Cahill, former Premier of New South Wales; John Fairfax, newspaper proprietor; Abe Saffron, well-known Sydney underworld figure. 121 victims of the Dunbar, which was wrecked on the cliffs below The Gap in August 1857. They were buried in a mass grave.
Every year towards the end of September Rookwood has a big open day; there s tours of crematoriums, embalming talks, hearses, historic tours, parades, funeral home displays, and much more. The cemetery gates are open sunrise to sunset everyday. However, different groups and buildings within Rookwood have their own hours of operations. So while the cemetery might be accessible the buildings might not be open. If you plan to visit Rookwood by yourself (as in, not part of a tour), it is strongly recommend you bring a map if unfamiliar with Rookwood.
Location: East Street, Lidcombe.
Moertuary Station, Redfern
Rookwood Cemetery Railway Mortuary Line
Jctn. (Rookwood Line) to No 1 Mortuary Station. Length: 1.1 km. Opened: 22 Oct 1864. Closed: 29 Dec 1948. Lifted
No 1 Mortuary Station to No 3 Mortuary Station. Length: 1.3 km. Opened: 26 May 1897. Closed: 29 Dec 1948. Lifted
No 3 Mortuary Station to No 4 Mortuary Station. Length: 1.0 km. Opened: 19 Jun 1908. Closed: 29 Dec 1948. Lifted
Rookwood Cemetery was created in the early 1860s as a replacement for Sydney s Sandhills Cemetery which was removed so that Central Station could be built. The branch line to Rookwood Cemetery opened as the Necropolis line on 22nd October 1864. Trains to the cemetery, which ran exclusively for funerals, left from the Mortuary Station near Central Station in Sydney. The single station on the branch line when it opened was called Haslem s Creek Cemetery. Its name was changed to Necropolis prior to 1872 and changed again to Mortuary General Cemetery on 16th July 1897. It was then changed to Cemetery Station No 1 15th June 1908 when the Roman Catholic Platform, which had been opened on 31st December 1901, had its name changed to Cemetery Station No 2. Mortuary Station No 3, which opened on 26th May 1897, became known as Mortuary Terminus two months later. Its name was changed to Cemetery Station No. 3 in June 1908 to create uniformity between the station names within the cemetery. The line s name was changed to the Rookwood branch line on 1st January 1914. No trace remains of it today except for the points and a short section of track that led to the cemetery line beyond Lidcombe station.
All Saints Church, Ainslie, ACT
The No. 1 Mortuary Station was constructed in 1864 and remained in use as the main station until the line s closure in December 1948. It was used as a chapel until 1958 when a fire gutted its interior. The Gothic-style building was then dismantled and re-erected stone by stone in Canberra as All Saints Anglican Church in the parish of Ainslie. The Redfern Mortuary Terminal, Regent Street, Redfern, from which trains left the city on their journey to Rookwood, was opened in 1869 and closed simultaneously with No 1 Mortuary Station at Rookwood Cemetery. St Paul s Anglican Church (which is today The Greek Orthodox Church), 242 Cleveland Street, Redfern, was the church where Anglican funeral services were held prior to the departure of funeral trains from the nearby Mortuary Station.
One of the focal points of the landscaping at Roockwood Cemetery is the Serpentine Canal. Dating back to c1880, it is an open brick-lined drain, which, like a snake, weaves its way across the centre of the Church of England No.1 Cemetery. The Serpentine Canal is an engineering feat and technically very important. The drain runs through a series of ponds, decorated with urns, fountains and statues. It's a twisting canal with some amazing scenery, built as part of the original cemetery and not for graves, but to be walked along and enjoyed by visitors. Alongside the drain were ornamental gardens. These gardens featured plants such as camellias, magnolias, palms, and japonicas, as well as daffodils, jonquils, and freesias. The Serpentine Canal is crossed at regular intervals by cast iron and wrought iron bridges.
