East Perth Cemeteries

This website is the culmination of over 50 years of collective effort by a legion of committed volunteers and professional researchers. The National Trust of Australia (WA) in partnership with the Friends of Battye Library Inc. have brought together this work, and with the support of Lotterywest made it accessible to the public.

The site for a burial ground was surveyed at East Perth in late 1829, and the first acknowledged burial was John Mitchell on 6 January 1830. The cemeteries within the grounds continued to be the main burial ground for the Perth area until April 1899 when burials commenced at Karrakatta Cemetery.

The East Perth Cemeteries burial ground were closed for new burials in 1899, except for those in vaults or with the approval of the Governor. Burials at East Perth continued until 1916 when this practiced was ceased with a handful of exceptions.

It is widely acknowledged that there are over 10,000 burials within the grounds of the East Perth Cemeteries. There was no burial register kept by either the Church Wardens or the caretakers of the Cemeteries. This led to researchers having to spend many hours compiling various histories and datasets on the East Perth Cemeteries and these have been produced in various formats.