Waverley Cemetery
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The Waverley Cemetery opened in 1877 and is a cemetery located on top of the cliffs at Bronte in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. It is noted for its largely intact Victorian and Edwardian monuments. The cemetery contains the graves of many significant Australians including the poet Henry Lawson.

The cemetery is self-funded deriving its income from interments, including burial cremation, memorials and Mausolea of which there has been over 86,000. Waverley Cemetery was used during the filming of the 1979 Mel Gibson film Tim. The Cemetery was designed along similar lines to Père Lachaise in Paris and General Cemetery Company's Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

History

The need for a cemetery in the Waverley area was discussed as early as 1863. In 1866, a delegation of representatives was sent to the Minister of Lands to talk about the proposal. In 1868, the Local council committed to the cemetery’s management on the provision that it would "incur no cost in doing so", and a government grant of £1200 was provided.^{citation needed} In the 1870s the government of New South Wales purchased an initial four hectares of land, which they provided to the Waverly Council for use as a cemetery in the 1970s. To this the cemetery business purchased extra land from the revenue of the cemetery business.

The first internment occurred on 4 August 1877. In 1892, a "sinking" fund was established to pay for the upkeep of the cemetery during times of insufficient income.^[1] By 1894 the cemetery had grown to its present size of forty-one acres bounded by Trafalgar, Boundary and St Thomas streets.

Historical significance

Waverley Cemetery contains the graves of many people who shaped Australia. This includes literary figures such as Henry Lawson,^[2] (one of Australia’s most famous poets), Jules Archibald, founder of The Bulletin and benefactor of the Archibald prize,^[3] nineteenth century poet Henry Kendall,^[4] and poet and author Dorothea Mackellar.^[5] Other significant figures include aeronautical pioneer Lawrence Hargrave,^[6] Olympic swimmer Fanny Durack,^[2] and New South Wales Premier Sir James Martin, (whose remains were transferred to Waverly Cemetery after the death of his wife in 1909).^[7]

The cemetery contains over 200 war graves from various past conflicts. The front gates are a memorial to the residents of the area who died during World War One and World War Two.^[4] Inside the main gates is a memorial to the military forces of NSW which houses the remains of several officers killed in an 1891 sea mine explosion at Middle Head.^{citation needed} At least eleven United States Civil War veterans are also buried at Waverley, including Phineas S. Thompson.^[8] In addition, the cemetery is home to the The Irish Martyr’s memorial, (unveiled in 1898), a memorial to the those who died in the Fenian Rising of 1867.^[9]

Architecturally, Waverley Cemetery is significant in that it showcases examples of Stonemasonry and funerary art dating back from the 19th century,^{citation needed} with features (such as the gates, buildings and fencing) that due to their intact nature are considered of "outstanding aesthetic value".^[1]

Maintenance and funding

The cemetery after more than 130 years of operation remains a 100% self funded business. It has never been funded by the oublic purse or council ratepayers,^[10] with individual graves maintained for a fee — where families no longer wish to maintain their ancestors graves this has led to some significant memorials (such as those belonging to Jules Archibald and Victor Trumper) falling into disrepair.^{[11] [12]} In 2002, with new plots due to run out (not unique to this cemetery) in ten years and an ongoing problem with vandalism, the Waverley Council as owners of the business looked for alternative sources of revenue.^[11] These included corporate and private sponsorship for grave sites,^[13] a proposed crematorium, and the building of a new path to limit access to the cemetery by potential vandals.^[11] This mordern day philanthropic plan met with little success,^[11] although some graves have been restored with the assistance of sponsors, including Jules Archibald's (by The Bulletin)^[14] and Lawrence Hargrave's through the Royal Aeronautical Society,^[6] while the grave of Henry Lawson was restored through a $10,000 grant by the State governmentm, this has not secured the future of the business.^[2] The plan to incorporate on-site cremation into the existing business encountered small but vocal opposition, this lead to the then newly campaigning Liberal Party MP Malcolm Turnbull, the Federal Minister for Wentworth, to use the cemetery and its plight for political point scoring at the expense of providing families with greater choice. He spoke in Federal Parliament against the plan.^[15] The community opposition led to the plan being canceled in 2004.^[16] Finally, work on a new two million dollar boardwalk designed to move joggers and others passers by away from the graves was approved and was due to begin construction in July 2008.^[17]

In late 2007, the National Trust ran an online competition to determine the distribution of $185,000 in funding. Of the nine finalists, the Waverley Cemetery's ceremonial gates proved to be the most popular, winning the majority of the votes.^[18]. Sadly the amount voted to the project was little over 25% of the total restoration costs. The 75% remainder has been left to be funded by the cemetery and is likely to take many years to complete.

Cultural influences

The earliest known motion picture filmed at the cemetery was the 1977 Spanish production La Ragazza dal pigiama giallo, also known as The Pyjama Girl Case, a murder story based on the true story of Linda Agostini, the Pyjama Girl. In 1979 the cemetery was a location in filming of the movie Tim starring Mel Gibson. Baywatch used the cemetery while filming its Australian movie length episode, and the Australian series Home and Away buried one of their characters at Waverley in 2004. Notable recent films include Dirty Deeds. It was also pictured in the Bollywood Blockbuster Dil Chahta Hai in a musical sequence.^{citation needed}

The cemetery has been a place of inspiration for many artists, Henry Lawson who ultimately ended up there was fond of using the location in his stories, either as direct reference or indirectly.^{citation needed}

A panorama of the cemetery.

References

External links

• Waverley Cemetery website
• The Wonders of Waverley Cemetery

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