Overlooking the 'Off-Leash Dog Exercise Area' of the St. Thomas' Rest Park is #4 History Trail Sign, which gives an explanation of how this Park 'came to be'.
#4 TRANSFORMATION: The Cemetery Becomes a Rest Park
[Photo / 'Orientation Table' "Organised Chaos - the Cemetery c.1960"]
By the 1950's, St Thomas' Cemetery was very much in decline. The Cemetery was all but full, and most of the immediate relatives of those buried there had passed away. Increasing pressure during the 1960's to provide more open space in the rapidly growing lower north shore area coupled with the decline in maintenance levels brought matters to a head. In 1967 a special Act of Parliament saw the decaying St. Thomas' Cemetery handed over to North Sydney Council. The new Rest Park opened in 1974.
To create the Rest Park, the Cemetery was tidied up. Monuments and headstones in good condition were relocated into new precincts of white gravel, while others, in poorer condition, and unmarked, were removed. The site was landscaped for recreational use, and planted with native trees.
In the process of the conversion, the character of St. Thomas' as a Victorian cemetery was almost totally lost, as was much of the historical value and meaning of the site. Of the original 909 headstones on burial plots, only about 450 remain. Today it is difficult to imagine not only that the open grassy area you see before you was once densely packed with monuments and headstones, but that there are still people buried beneath your feet.
At the time of the conversion, the exchange of a poorly maintained cemetery for a new rest par which retained some features of the cemetery was seen as a socially acceptable trade-off. Today this is no longer the case.
No Easy Answers
however, as you walk about this fascinating and unique rest park do not be too quick to judge; bear in mind that had these 4 acres not been set aside as a cemetery, Crows Nest would most likely be without one of its largest and most popular recreation areas. If the land had not first been a cemetery, it probably would have been developed for residential use.
Visited: 0844, Saturday, 2 December, 2017
The link below is the Council website, for the Park - it may come up as BLOCKED, depending on your browser settings.