Symonds Street Cemetery

Also known as Grafton Cemetery, this is Auckland's oldest public cemetery, having been established in 1842. It was in use as the main cemetery for the Auckland City until 1886 when the Waikumete Cemetery was opened in West Auckland, many miles from the central city.

The Grafton cemetery remained "open" until it was officially closed in 1905, and burials continued until the 1980s as families used family plots. In 1910 the cemetery was officially transferred to the ownership of the Auckland City Council as a public park.

The cemetery was originally on both sides of Symonds Street, with the larger section on the eastern side and extending down the side of the Grafton Gulley to the bottom of the gulley. In the 1960s construction of a major motorway link to the Port went through the bottom of the gulley and a long way up both sides of the gulley. This necessitated the disinterment of the remains of over 4,000 persons, who were then reburied within other parts of the cemetery.

Despite the fact that some "important persons" from Auckland's early years are buried within the cemetery, it has many areas of neglect . The graves are rarely tidy and are often as in my picture, rather broken down.

However, one of the most wonderful aspects of this cemetery is that the exotic plantings of the original cemetery are now being gradually replaced by more and more native trees as the local forest is slowly recreating itself within a couple of kilometers of central city waterfront.

I like the quiet, the cool, and the peace of this place which is framed on three sides by very busy roads.