Cathedral Park
The project to make Cathedral Park a showcase for the city’s history started with an information session and walking tour for 38 descendants and other key stakeholders.
The Merewether Historical Society, the Parks and Playgrounds Movement, the Family History Society, neighbours and Christ Church Cathedral participated in the event.
Download a copy of the presentation from the information session (3.8MB).
Progress report - December 2011
Cathedral Park headstone conservation project is well under way. Three headstones were removed by hand on Wednesday 30 November marking an important milestone for this ground-breaking conservation project. Ray Delic and Company, who have been contracted by council to do the masonry repairs, painstakingly removed each headstone by hand and using slings, carefully lifted them onto the truck for transfer to a workshop for conservation.
While in the workshop the headstones will be de-salinated – to remove salt and other nasties, and several will be repaired where they have broken or fractured. They will then be returned to their actual burial position within the park, revealing the true heritage significance and former use of the place. The works are the first step towards the restoration of one of our City’s most historic and potentially stunning parks.
Background
The cemetery was ‘decommissioned’ in 1881 and the land was granted to Council for use as a city park in 1961. In 1966, a survey identified 258 graves from the 3,300 total recorded burials in the grounds. At this time the remaining 84 headstone monuments were relocated to the site’s eastern boundary.
Council’s project team has successfully gained a State Heritage grant to conserve 10 monuments, reinstate them to their burial plot and complete associated landscape works.
These works are due for completion by 2013.
Contact us
City Administration Centre
282 King Street
Newcastle NSW 2300
Tel: 02 4974 2000