Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, is a town and seaport in the south-eastern part of the island, with a harbour on the estuary of the Derwent. The Public Cemetery is at Cornelian Bay, 3.5 miles by road from Hobart General Post Office.
Cornelian Bay Cemetery and Crematorium, dominates the surrounding hillside.
Cornelian Bay is the major cemetery and crematorium in southern Tasmania and was opened in 1872 bordering the river on what was sometime previously the Government farms. The area was divided up among the various religious denominations, the space allocated decided from the previous census. Headstones from other cemeteries were relocated here. Burials and cremations at Cornelian Bay, Kingston (south of Hobart) and East Rison (Eastern Shore)
The Cornelian Bay Public Cemetery contains the graves of the Australian Military Forces who died during the Second World War. They include 9 RAN, 56 Australian Army and 10 RAAF personnel. Forty-two of these are buried in the War Cemetery which also contains the graves of 9 World War I veterans who died during the Second World War.The remaining war graves are in various other parts of the cemetery.
St Johns Park, in New Town, had a large cemetery near the church and old orphanage buildings (www.monissa.com), which today is cleared ground except for one monument.
The wall at the back says
"Sacred to the memory of those who were reinterred at Cornelian Bay from the Queenborough Cemetery 1960-1963".
Queenborough was down south, in the Sandy Bay. It operated as a cemetery from 1873 until the early-20th century
There is a monument, with a list of names, in memory of the Rabaul Garrison who made the supreme sacrifice in 1924.
"They Shall Not Grow Old".
A second memorial in the cemetery, the Rabaul Memorial is dedicated to 39 Tasmanian soldiers of "Lark Force", the Australian Army contingent charged with the defence of Rabaul, New Britain, against the Japanese in 1942
Also situated in the cemetery is the Hobart Crematorium, where 18 Second World War servicemen whose remains were cremated are commemorated, and the Tasmania Cremation Memorial, honouring four men whose ashes were scattered elsewhere in Tasmania.
During the Second World War, Hobart was provided with fixed defences for the protection of its shipping.
An oil refinery and fuel storage depot with port facilities were built on reclaimed land at Self's Point in 1951, between Newtown Bay and Cornelian Bay.
There is also a French Monument.
An expedition commanded by Dumont d'Urville of the L'Astrolabe put ashore in Hobart Town in 1839. 20 sailors and 4 lieutenants had died en route from Suva and were buried at sea. On arrival 2 more died in Hobart Town and were given a full Naval funeral. They were buried at the Catholic Cemetery, Barrack Street (now St. Virgil's College).
Thank you to Monissa Whiteley for visiting the Cemetery and providing history, photos and details.
Sourced and submitted by Julianne T Ryan. 19 September 2014. Lest we forget.
