Cornelian Bay Cemetery and Crematorium, Tasmania

Cemetery Details

Location Cornelian Bay, New Town, Tasmania, Australia
Co‑ordinates S42.8497444, E147.3254637
Description

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.

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Names

Showing 8 people of interest from cemetery

CROSSIN, Cecil

Service number 1682
Private
3rd Light Horse Regiment
AIF WW1
Born 9 Nov 1892

FITZGERALD, Henry Parker

Flight Lieutenant

ADAMS, Robert John

Service number T23383
Corporal
Lines of Communication Units
Australian Military Forces (WW2)
Born 14 Jan 1880

STUBBS, George James

Service number 4024
Private
4th Pioneer Battalion
AIF WW1
Born 26 May 1876

CROFT, Charles William

Service number 1162
Lieutenant
1st Divisional Ammunition Column
AIF WW1
Born 28 Jan 1888

BACON, John

Service number TX1375
Private
Born 7 May 1902

IRVING, William Henry Lenold

Service number 32543
Gunner
111th Australian (Howitzer) Battery
AIF WW1
Born 16 Mar 1895

BOYD, John Henry

Service number 1069
Lance Corporal
15th Infantry Battalion
AIF WW1
Born 7 Jun 1898