A place where locals were once prepared for burial is now a hub for those seeking their family roots.
Sexton’s Cottage sits in St Thomas’ Rest Park, the oldest European burial ground on the North Shore. From around 1850, the church Sexton – groundskeeper and grave digger – prepared bodies for interment in the one-room building. Since 1986, that same room has been used to dig up family stories.
The first burial was that of Elizabeth Berry in 1845, wife of wealthy merchant Alexander Berry, who donated four acres of his vast estate to St Thomas’ Anglican Church. Berry had an imposing stone pyramid constructed over Elizabeth’s tomb, perhaps the only monument of its kind in Australia.
At St Thomas’ Cemetery, labourers, farmers and boatbuilders rubbed shoulders with military personnel, civil servants and colonial administrators. The grand 1850 funeral of explorer Captain Owen Stanley began a long, unofficial, association with the Royal Navy. By century’s end, many distinguished locals had been laid to rest, including artist Conrad Martens and entrepreneur Bernard Otto Holtermann. By the final burial in 1950, around 4,000 people had been interred, half of them children. With no piped drinking water, sewerage or hospital until the late 19th century, mortality was high.
Although there had been a local Sexton since at least 1861, he did not live on site until 1884, when the ‘laying out’ room became the living room in a two-bedroom cottage. As a North Shore undertaking industry began to grow from 1870, there was less need to prepare burials on site. Cremation was not common until well into the 20th century.
In 1967, North Sydney Council took over the neglected site, converting the cemetery into a Rest Park from 1974. The front room of the restored cottage opened as a museum and family history resource on 21 September, 1986.The Rest Park conversion pleased many but not all. Historian Lionel Gilbert criticised ‘dark deeds’ perpetrated upon old cemeteries by advocates of ‘pioneer’ parks who removed and rearranged monuments. He was unhappy with the stark outcome at St Thomas.’ But after further sensitive work from 1975, to repair and relocate stonework and landscape with indigenous plantings, Gilbert agreed to open Sexton’s Cottage Museum, declaring he was ‘both proud and happy’ with the result: ‘Please be assured, future generations will call you blessed.’
To find out more, visit the temporary exhibition at Stanton Library, and permanent displays at Sexton’s Cottage Museum. See northsydney.nsw.gov.au for opening hours.
Historical Services, North Sydney Council