Rookwood Cemetery

Rookwood Cemetery

Rookwood Necropolis entrance
Details
Established	1868
Location	Sydney, New South Wales
Country	Australia
Type	Public
Size	286 hectares
Number of interments	1 million
Website	rookwoodindependent.com.au (Independent); catholiccemeteries.org.au (Catholic); rookwoodcrem.com.au (Crematorium); rookwoodcemetery.com.au (Anglican)

Rookwood Cemetery (officially named Rookwood Necropolis) is the largest necropolis in the Southern Hemisphere, located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Rookwood is a suburb, close to Lidcombe railway station about 17 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district.

Rookwood Cemetery is divided into denominational and operational areas with individual offices, staff, and equipment to run different parts of the entire area. The cemetery is now managed by three trusts. Rookwood Necropolis Trust are the custodians of Rookwood on behalf of the NSW Government. The two denominational trusts are responsible for the care and maintenance of a number of burial sections catering to various ethnic and cultural groups within the community. Those trusts are: Rookwood General Cemetery Reserve Trust and the Catholic Cemeteries and Crematoria. The NSW Cremation Company, which founded and operates The Rookwood Memorial Gardens Crematorium, is the oldest operating crematorium in Australia. The NSW Cremation Company is the only private company operating a 'cemetery' section within the Necropolis grounds. Today the company is part of the InvoCare company.

Rookwood also contains a number of memorial shrines including those dedicated to victims of the Holocaust and to members of the merchant marines killed in wartime. The Sydney War Cemetery is located in the eastern section of the Necropolis. The Circle of Love is a shrine dedicated to stillborn children or those who died in young infancy.

There are 915,000 people (figures as at 31 December 2014) that have been buried and cremated at Rookwood, which covers an area of 314 hectares. The "Friends of Rookwood Inc" is a voluntary organisation dedicated to preserving the site. As the largest Victorian era cemetery still in operation in the world, Rookwood is of significant national and historical importance.