Cemetery Masterlist

The Cemeteries Master List is a database which can be searched but not altered.
The fields represented are:

• Local Government Area (LGA) – This may have been the LGA the cemetery was in when it was listed. LGA boundaries and names change on a regular basis and we may not have updated the LGA name at the time of your search. A key of the LGA abbreviations is included on this website.
• Locality – The suburb/ village/town/area near where it is located. The name is a place recognized by the NSW Geographical Names Board and may differ from the cemetery or place name.
• Item – The name of the cemetery. Some cemeteries have been known by more than one name during its history. If you cannot find the cemetery by its name, try searching under address or locality.
• Region – The National Trust has divided NSW into regions – Sydney Metropolitan, North Coast, Hunter, Illawarra, South East, New England, Central West, Orana, Riverina, Murray, and Far West. This gives a general idea of what area of NSW the cemetery is located in.
• Cemetery Type – This explains what type of cemetery it is.General Cemeteries are areas of land set aside by government bodies for the use as burial grounds. They are divided into areas for different religions. Church Cemeteries is the term used for any cemetery for a specific religion, whether it is located near a place of worship or not. Converted cemeteries have had monuments moved, often completely removed from the site, or with selected headstones placed in rows or built into walls. Cemeteries were sometimes converted into parks. Revoked means that this was land set aside to be used as a cemetery, and later had its reservation as a cemetery revoked. While some cemeteries have been used for many years before being revoked, in some cases the land may never have been used for burials.

The National Trust is always pleased to know of cemeteries which they have not yet identified. It is important to us to locate all cemeteries within NSW and have records of them on our register. If you know of a cemetery which is not on our list you can send us the basic information about the site –

• Name – including past names the cemetery was known by.
• Address – the street address of the cemetery, or a description of how to find it from a landmark in the nearest town/village. Sometimes a sketch or a map can help us locate it on future surveys.
• Locality – the name of the nearest town/ suburb/ village.
• The Local Government Area (LGA)
• Region – The area of NSW the cemetery is located in, this can help avoid confusion with localities of the same name in different areas of the state.
• Type – What kind of cemetery is it? General, Church, Family, Lone Grave, etc.

Or if you have more information about the cemetery you can fill out a Draft Cemetery Index Card. Blank Draft Cemetery Index cards, and information on how to fill them out, can be downloaded from the cemeteries section of this website.

The Master List does not include family cemeteries and lone graves, although the National Trust has information on many or most of these. If you have information on one or more such sites, please call us on (02) 9258 0123. Filling of the gaps in our information is largely dependant on the assistance of interested people throughout NSW.

Staff and volunteers of The National Trust (NSW) undertake field trips to record information about the cemeteries there. This is called a cemetery survey.

Surveys involve many kinds of burial places across the state of New South Wales and range in topography, age and size e.g. the large Rookwood Necropolis to a lone grave on a country property.

Each survey involves:

• Gathering evidence found on site with photographs, drawings, maps and text. This includes looking at the materials, relics, vegetation, epitaphs, landform, topographic setting, threats to site, condition of site, monument forms, fences, access and the general layout;
• Analysis of historic parish maps, photos and other historical sources;
• Interpretation of the existing cultural and natural landscape in relation to historic documents, maps and oral histories;
• Liaison with members of the local community, especially historical and family history societies and owners of cemeteries;
• Assessing the heritage significance of each cemetery;
• Preparing a comprehensive index card of the cemetery for archiving and/or prepare a classification card for inclusion on the National Trust Register.The survey information includes cemetery management advice and recommendations and is available to local governments and the public.

The National Trust has limited time and resources to carry out cemetery surveys, so some areas have not yet been visited by the survey teams. Missing coverage is mainly in remote or rural areas which are more difficult for our Sydney based survey teams to visit.

If you have information about one or more of the cemeteries on the Master List which have not surveyed, you can help us by filling out a Draft Cemetery Index Card for each site. To find out if more information is needed about a cemetery you can contact the National Trust (NSW) on (02) 9258 0123.