All Saints Anglican Cemetery and Unmarked Graves – Parramatta

Memorial Wall, All Saints Anglican Church Parramatta

All Saints Cemetery is located at 56 Fennell Street, Parramatta.

The All Saints Cemetery is of great significance for Parramatta for historical, social and scientific reasons. The cemetery is associated with a number of significant people – Gregory Blaxland, William Griffith, Mary Ann Ralph, Robert and Martha Moxham, William and Robert Goodwin and Reverend John C. Bravey are buried here.

This cemetery was established in 1843. The cemetery comprises a large open space with headstones sited along a central walk running north-south. The entrance to the cemetery has a rustic sandstone curved wall.

All Saints Anglican Cemetery is a resting place for about 2000 people. There are around 1500 unmarked graves which are mainly for the inmates of the Parramatta Lunatic Asylum and other benevolent institutions from the Township of Parramatta. A number of Chinese from the lunatic asylum were buried there.

Plaque – Chinese buried – All Saints Cemetery

There are 24 plaques firmly attached to a solid Memorial Wall of the All Saints Anglican Cemetery. The wall is situated in the south-west corner of the cemetery, at the junction of Brickfield Street and Fennell Street. There are over 25 Chinese names recorded on the brass plaques.  The majority of the Chinese men were most likely non-Christians.

The following is a list of the Chinese men recorded on the Memorial Wall plaques –

There is virtually no footprint of Chinese existence in Australia apart from very few surviving documents and a name on a memorial plaque in the cemetery. One can only wonder if their families in China ever found out what happened to their loved ones in Australia.

Neera Sahni, Research Services Leader, City of Parramatta, Parramatta Heritage Centre, 2017