BALMAIN
CATHOLIC CEMETERY
According to local
legend, the property for this little known cemetery was acquired
by pioneer Catholic priest Father J. J. Therry in 1857, when he
was parish priest of the then very extensive Balmain RC parish.
The local legend is that as there was no other nearby Catholic
cemetery Father Therry began burials there soon after the land
acquisition.
However despite extensive research, the first proven burials took
place in 1868 and the cemetery remained in use until about 1903.
Physical evidence of the cemetery began to disappear around 1920
when some remains were re-interred elsewhere to provide land on
which to extend the church and build a school for the new parish
of Leichhardt and by about 1950 all physical trace of the cemetery
had disappeared. The burial register has also been lost and this
record contains 120 or so burials of the around 2000 burials likely
to have taken place. I am am always delighted to hear from anyone
who believes they know of burials at this place and am happy to
do look-ups on what information we currently have to hand.
Patrick
Callaghan
These pages were produced
by P.Applebee for Raymond Henderson and the Australian Cemeteries
Mailing List©2001
