East Perth Cemeteries

Val, who has volunteered for 30 years at East Perth Cemeteries, took as on a tour of the grounds did an amazing job! So much history and so many stories, highly recommended!

It may seem odd to some that visiting a cemetery is even a thing but they are interesting places to walk around. Technically East Perth Cemetery is a Graveyard as it is in the grounds of a church. Personally I find that old cemeteries hold a lot of history and East Perth certainly does. There are many surnames that may be familiar to locals like Stirling and Monger. The nominal fee allows for the up keep of the grounds. currently $10 Adults, $7 Concession, $5 children (5 and up, under 5s free). Also, at the time of writing this the cemetery is only open on Sundays between 2pm and 4pm.

This cemetery contains the remains of many of Perth's earliest European settlers. To walk around and read the headstones is to see the names of many suburbs, roads and parks within Perth. Entry is $5 and it is only open Sunday between 2-4pm.

We were lucky enough to go to a Halloween concert, the venue was perfect, an achingly beautiful church with well kept grounds. Parking was a challenge but its imports to remember this is a crematorium not a stadium.

Such a beautiful and well preserved portion of our history.

Amazing Fringe show after dark... Will have to visit during daylight hours.... although only opened two hours on a Sunday

Western Australia does not have a lot of history compared to Europe of even the United States, so it is good that they are trying to preserve the stonemasonry and metalwork masterpieces on this sacred ground. One thing that I did find disturbing was that I passed it one night, and on the grounds there were bright lights and people partying. They were on the north side of the chapel. I think it was a Fringe Festival event. It seemed really incongruous to me. Not only was it a desecration of the memorial site - I also noted (when I went past a few days later) that someone seemed to have used a sharp instrument to incise swirling patterns on the bad of some of the white headstones. I had never noticed them before. Basically it was vandalism. I assume that the National Trust of Western Australia must have approved of this event. I don't know if they still have these events, but if that is the way that Western Australians do things then that is their business.

Great little exhibition on until late June 2022 in the graveyard church showing finds from archaeological excavations in the Chinese section of the graveyard. Well worth a visit. The question of whether a supermarket should be built over historical Chinese graves is a matter to contemplate while visiting the exhibition.