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; approximately 3500 of these burials are recorded. There was no burial register kept by either the Church Wardens or the caretakers of the Cemeteries. This led to researchers have spending many hours compiling various histories and datasets on the East Perth Cemeteries and these have been produced in various formats.

Cherie Strickland and Lorraine Clarke with the help of funding from the Friends of Battye Library Inc. are collating a database of the numerous datasets and will carry out further research into other documents and family histories to enable the most comprehensive biographical database on the inhabitants of Cemetery Hill.

In partnership with the National Trust (WA), the Friends of Battye Library aim to make this research available freely online. This database would be fully sourced and would acknowledge all previous researchers who contributed to the end result.

We would like to thank National Trust, Royal West Australian Historical Society, West Australian Genealogical Society, Graham Bown, Ron Bodycoat, Father Edward Doncaster, Gillian O’Mara and Anglican Archives for their support in this endeavour.

Cherie and Lorraine are keen to hear from members who may have ancestors buried in the East Perth Cemeteries; if you have a photo of a headstone or any other document that places you family at East Perth, please contact them at eastperthcemeteries@iinet.net.au or 08 9343 8838.