Honeysuckle Point Cemetery (Defunct)

Date: About 1840 to 1883
Location: Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
Surname/tag: Cemeteries

See:

• Honeysuckle Point Cemetery category for the developing list of people buried in this Cemetery who have profiles on Wikitree.
• Honeysuckle Point and Henty Cemeteries Act : The governmental act providing for the relocation of remains in Honeysuckle Point Cemetery and Henty Cemetery.
• List of Relocated Graves Note that these are those that had gravestones identifying burials, and does not mean that a family name missing was not buried in Honeysuckle Point Cemetery. It only means that the remains were not identified.
• Archealogical descriptions of Cottage Creek Cemetery The Newcastle Light Rail Historical Archaeological Assessment and Statement of Heritage Impact document issued March 2016 has some interesting descriptions and documentation of the cemetery location including a painting of the cemetery from 1894 (Page 55).

Cemetery Name: Honeysuckle Point Cemetery Also Known As: Newcastle West Cemetery, Cottage Creek Cemetery

Address: Originally between Charleston Street (now Hunter) and the main northern railway line at the western end of the city of Newcastle. Next to the Honeysuckle Point Railway Station. Relocated to Sandgate Cemetery, Newcastle.

GPS Coordinates: In proximity of -32. 926, 151.763

Estimated Burials: 300+ graves

Information: The original Honeysuckle Point Cemetery, also known as Newcastle West and Cottage Creek, was far from what is now known as Honeysuckle Point. It comprised a Wesleyan Methodist/Presbyterian portion and a Roman Catholic portion that were in use from c.1840. The cemetery was closed in 1883 when Sandgate Cemetery was opened.

Early in the 20th century, the Honeysuckle site was resumed by the Railways Department. Many remains were exhumed and reinterred, mostly at Sandgate but a few at Swansea, in 1916. For further details of the history of this cemetery, contact the Newcastle Family History Society, who have published several volumes on the subject.

Many of the old monuments are badly eroded and the original engravings have disappeared; others are partially missing or now very difficult to read. The inscriptions still legible date from the 1840's with several quite recent inscriptions for family members who would not have been buried here.

Published References

HONEYSUCKLE POINT CEMETERIES.

TRANSFERENCE OF REMAINS.

Many years ago, when Mark Twain visited Newcastle, he remarked to an Interviewer on his return to America that it was a city of one long street, with a hospital at one end, and a cemetery at the other. Any visitor In future years will not be able to give such a description of Newcastle, for the cemetery, whlch the famous humorist referred to, will shortly be a thing of the past. This decision has been arrived at by the Department of Public Works, and tenders are being called .for the removal to Sandgate of the human remains from the Honeysuckle Point cemeteries. The cemetery, which lies between Hunter street and the Great Northern Railway, at the western end of the city, has been a landmark within the recollection of the oldest inhabitants of the district. One portion of the cemetery was devoted originally to the Roman Catholic Church, and the other to the Presbyterian Church. The area was, however, resumed by the Government slightly over-three years ago, as the land will be required for the extension of railway and wharfage improvements in conjunction with the development of the Wlckham Basin. The proposed overhead tramway bridge, designed to connect Hunter-street, Newcastle, with Hannell-street, Wickham will be taken ever the railway at an adjacent point, and the area of the old cemetery will be required for the building of the approach on the Newcastle side. It Is evident, from the determination of the department, to remove the remains, that there is an early intention to prepare for the erection of the bridge and for the much desired widening of Hannell-street. The whole of the properties along the foreshores of that thoroughfare between the railway and Cowper-street have long been resumed, and all the properties. with the exception of the industries, have been removed, and areas are in preparation for their transference. In the removal of the remains from the cemeteries, the utmost care will be exercised, and the department state that this will be stipulated in the conditions. The operations, furthermore, will not be open to the gaze of the curious, A temporary high fence will be erected to shut out the now open portion from public view. It in the desire of the department to observe every care for the preservation of all that remains of the dead, and to attain this end they will -be placed in new coffins. Every precaution is to be taken for the correct identification, as far as possible, of the remains, which, upon their removal to their new resting-place, will be accompanied by the headstones, railings, etc. The remains will be reinterred in the Presbyterian and Catholic portions of the Sandgate cemetery, and the authorities of these churches have made provision for their reception, without charge, in the respective burial areas. The cemetery has occupied for very many years one of the most valuable areas upon the city front, and though there is a sentimental feeling which is averse to trespassing upon such an area. its change from an uncared for and forsaken area to one of public utility will be for the better. During recent years the Government had allowed the more western cemetery to lapse Into such a state of dilapidation that it was offensive to the eye. It was essential that the area should be put in order, or that the graves should be removed, and upon the decision of the department it is satisfactory to know that the utmost decorum and care will be observed in the carrying out of the operations.

Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW)

Saturday, 12 Aug 1916, Page 6.