| Historical notes: | STATEMENT OF COUNTRY
Liverpool Memorial Park is located to the north of Tucoerah/Tuggerah (the Georges River) and south of Cabramatta Creek, within the Country of the Cabrogal/Gabrogal clan of the Dharug people. The river and its associated tributaries are an important landmark in the cultural landscape, providing critical resources and transport routes. The Cabrogal/Gabrogal people are understood to have traditional close relationships and connections with both Dharawal and Gandangara peoples.
Colonial expansion into southwestern Sydney in the late 1700s had a profound impact, with responses ranging from direct conflict between Aboriginal people and colonists, but also to collaborative relationships within the Liverpool area. Despite significant change, Aboriginal people remained in the Liverpool area through the colonial period and into the modern era, maintaining strong ties to Country through to the present (Artefact 2024). People of the area continue to identify as descendants of the Cabrogal/Gabrogal (Goodall and Cadzow 2009, Artefact 2024).
Liverpool:
George Bass and Matthew Flinders were the first Europeans to explore what became the Liverpool area in 1795 as part of their aims to map and explore the Georges River and its surrounds. They reported favourable countryside and Governor Hunter named the area Banks Town. In 1805 Governor Hunter granted 750 acres on the banks of the Georges River to Thomas Moore, a former boat builder. Moore became one of the first European settlers in Liverpool and he felt it was a suitable area for a township (Biosis 2019). On 7 November 1810 Governor Lachlan Macquarie, his wife Elizabeth, Captain Antill and surveyor James Meehan travelled to the Liverpool area to meet Moore and Dr William Redfern. They agreed it was suitable as a new township and Governor Macquarie invested extensively in Liverpool's public works (Biosis 2019).
Liverpool's second cemetery:
The burial ground, which now forms part of the Liverpool Memorial Park, is the second cemetery in the Liverpool region, originally used as overflow for the first cemetery at Apex Park. It was commonly referred to as St Luke's Cemetery or Liverpool Cemetery, although there were no formal connections to the nearby St Luke's Church.
The cemetery opened in 1821 and the first recorded burial was that of Richard Guise (16 April 1821, 64 years of age). Guise was from the Lorraine region of France and later arrived in NSW as a Corporal in the NSW Corps and settled in the Liverpool region. Guise was supposedly Anglican and was buried in the area reserved for the Church of England burial ground. (Biosis, 2019).
In the early phase of the Cemetery, significant burials were those of William Broughton (d. 22/07/1821) and Captain Eber Bunker (d. 27/09/1836). Broughton arrived on the First Fleet and became a magistrate in 1809 and was later promoted to acting Commissioner General in 1814. He played a significant role in the development of Liverpool and its surrounds. Captain Eber Bunker is generally regarded as the father of Australia's significant whaling industry.
In 1827 the cemetery was separated into denominational sections. The Church of England section was officially dedicated on 30 January 1843, followed by the Roman Catholic section on 31 March 1846. A Wesleyan section was dedicated on 16 July 1863. Further land was granted to the Roman Catholic section on 19 May 1868, and a separate Roman Catholic Asylum Pauper and Presbyterian Asylum burial grounds was dedicated on 25 July 1884.
In the second half of the 19th Century, other prominent burials included those of:
*Reverend Robert Cartwright (d. 14/12/1856), Church of England),the first minister at nearby St Luke's Church, a magistrate and the first superintendent of the Male Orphan School from 1825-1829.
*James Badgery (d. 4/12/1872, Church of England), a prominent landholder in the early colony. Badgery's Creek is named after him.
*William Childs (d. 1888, Presbyterian), an ex-convict formerly assigned to Alexander Macleay at Elizabeth Bay House who became a major landholder in the district.
*Lucy Leane (d. 12/09/1895), a Dharug woman landowner, farmer and activist.
At this time the northern portion of the cemetery was allocated to paupers of Presbyterian and Roman Catholic faiths, who were inmates of the Liverpool Asylum (1851-1862) and the Liverpool Asylum for the Infirm and Destitute (1862-1933, previously the Liverpool Asylum). The Liverpool Asylum was constructed nearby from 1822 and was originally managed by the Benevolent Society.
A total of 1,991 asylum burials were recorded in the St Lukes Parish register between 1851-1884 across the first and second cemeteries (Biosis 2019). The cemeteries were becoming increasingly full and more space was required, with the Church of England burial ground described as being "in a disgraceful condition" (Biosis 2019). A local writer, William Freame, described the cemetery as desolate, depressing and snake-infested, with fences destroyed by cattle and fire, with out of control vegetation. Freame suggested the poor condition of the cemetery was tolerated as it was the burial area for those who had passed away within the Liverpool Asylum (Fream 1918, in Biosis 2019).
Despite the declining state of the cemetery, burials continued well into the 20th century. Prominent burials in this period included that of prominent landholder and surgeon Dr Charles Throsby (d. 10/10/1913); American civil war veteran Murtha Doyle (d.10/10/1913); and long term Head Matron of the Asylum Mary Burnside (d. 9/4/1913).
During World War I, thousands of 'enemy alien' internees from Germany, Austria and the wider Austro-Hungarian Empire were held at the nearby Holsworthy Internment Camp along with many Australians of German and Austrian descent. Approximately 72 internees from the camp were buried at the cemetery. However, at the request of the German Government in 1962 they were disinterred and reburied at a memorial cemetery in Tatura, Victoria, where German war internees from all over Australia were buried together (Biosis 2019; Liverpool Council).
Service personnel had been trained nearby at Holsworthy since the 1880s and had been buried at Liverpool for decades, however during the First World War the number of service burials at Liverpool increased. 40 memorial tombstones were erected at the Liverpool Pioneers Memorial Park for local service personnel who had died and were buried overseas, mostly in France, Turkey and Egypt. These official memorials were removed by the Australian War Graves Commission in 1962 and were relocated to Rookwood Cemetery. However, the remains of personnel who died following their return home have remained at Liverpool with their headstones (Liverpool Council).
The cemetery was officially closed to all new burials in 1958.
Cemetery converts to Pioneers Memorial Park:
Little alteration occurred in the cemetery between 1951 and the late 1960s. The cemetery became neglected. In 1964 a number of letters were received by Council from the Liverpool Historical Society, expressing concerns about the potential upgrades, such as the installation of a youth centre. In 1965 the National Trust submitted a revised version of an upgrade proposal that planned to convert the cemetery into a park, Council adopted this proposal. Three years later, Council provided $5,000 to the Parks Program. The proposal accounted for the repair of all headstones from burials prior to 1850. The total approximate cost was to be $115,000, with $15,000 per annum maintenance cost (Biosis, 2019).
The Old Liverpool Cemetery Act 1970 allowed the cemetery to be converted to a public park, called Pioneers Memorial Park, which was confirmed in 1974. Works for a new landscape form were undertaken and all the footstones and many of the grave surrounds removed, with only the headstones and steles left in situ. In accordance with the Act over 600 trees and 700 shrubs were planted, and an irrigation system was installed. The construction works for the memorial building (a cottage in the centre of the park), had begun before Council received legislative authority. The cottage's memorial wall was inaugurated in November 1974. (Biosis, 2019). On Sunday 24th of July 1988 a plaque dedication service was held at which the Liverpool City Brass Band played as the descendants of First Fleeters and friends gathered at the cottage. The plaque was unveiled by Alderman Ron Holland, Deputy Mayor of Liverpool City Council and the dedication prayer was given by Reverend James Ramsay, Rector of St Luke's Anglican Church (Cowell, 1990).
During the conversion, headstones were either removed and placed within storage or displayed upon a serpentine memorial wall, which was present within the park from 1970 until 2009. Although the headstones were removed, the burials were left undisturbed. Some headstones were returned to their original resting places, whilst others remain in storage. By the late 1970s the layout of the memorial had been completed. (Biosis, 2019).
Liverpool Pioneers Memorial Park revitalisation works:
Revitalisation works began in 2010, when Mayor Wendy Waller officially re-opened the Precinct as Pioneers Memorial Park. The revitalisation project was to re-establish the original form and layout of the cemetery and include heritage interpretation for the public. The scope of the works included the removal of the serpentine memorial and long sweeping paths, the re-instatement of gravel paths consistent with the original layout based on the faith denomination sections, the re-instatement of 550 headstones to their original locations and the addition of 3000 plants. Interpretive signage was placed throughout the park and at the entrance wall, describing the history of the park and biographical information about notable individuals or groups. A webpage was also created with the general history of the park, notable burials, map, burials listing and gallery for members of the public with historical interest in the area. (Biosis, 2019). |