Hello It can be quite confusing, here's how I belie ve it works In 1868 a privately owned cemetery opened on the corner of what we now know as Norton and William Sts. in Leichhardt this cemetery was known as the Balmain General cemetery, there was no suburb of Leichhardt in 1868 and the whole area was deisignated Balmain. About 11,000 burials took place in this cemetery and it was open to all comers although very few Catholics were buried there, this cemetery closed in 1912, however the private company which owned the cemetery ran into financial trouble near the end of the cemeteries life and I think may have gone into liquidation. The cemetery then lay abandoned until the 1940's when Leichhardt Council took control and eventually converted the by now quite run down cemetery into what is now Pioneer Park Its worthy of note that the many unclaimed headstones were used to build the low sandstone walls which define the edge of this now very attractive park. The burial register for this cemetery has survived and is held by Leichhardt Library and many other such places. The land for the Balmain Catholic cemetery was acquired by the Catholic parish of Balmain in the late 1850's and legend has it that burials begun soon after, however the earliest proven burials take place at the end of 1868. This cemetery was/is bounded by Allen, Elswick and William Sts in Leichhardt. This cemetery operated between 1868 and about 1905/6 and it is estimated that about 2000/2500 burials took place there. From 1898 the cemetery has been progressively built over and now houses St. Columba's church and presbytery a sizeable primary school, an unused convent which has been converted to a child care centre and a few other small buildings. No evidence of the old cemetery remains and the burial register has been lost and its this that I am slowly re-creating, proven burials now exceed 700. and welcome any info about this cemetery of burials there that anyone may be able to provide The two cemeteries are/were less than a mile apart Hope this helps Patrick Callaghan ----- Original Message ----- From: "paynescrossing" <paynescrossing@gmail.com> To: <aus-nsw@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 11:42 PM Subject: Re: [AUS-NSW] BURIALS AT BALMAIN CATHOLIC CEMETERY > Hi Patrick and list > > I know that you have written quite extensively on this but I am not > clear on the differences between the 'two' cemeteries. One is now > 'Pioneer Park', Leichhardt (the 'Old Balmain Cemetery'). Was the > Catholic Cemetery a portion of this and consecrated by Catholic > clergy? or was it located elsewhere in a Catholic church grounds? > > The 1941 conversion Act of Parliament by which the Old Balmain > Cemetery was converted into Pioneer Park has a schedule which sets out > the boundaries. That Act required the Council (now Leichhardt Council) > to do their best to record the names and they claim to have a register > which you can inspect. > > When you said the Burial Register was lost, I presume you mean the > Parish Register kept by the local Catholic Church, not the Register > required under the Act? > > For the schedule setting out the boundaries: > http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/obca1941258/sch1.html > > For the Council Register: > http://www.leichhardt.nsw.gov.au/Balmain-Cemetery.html > > Regards > > > > 2009/9/15 patrick callaghan <pca96504@bigpond.net.au>: >> is that there were two cemeteries, >> quite close to each and both operating from 1868 to about 1910 and both >> generally known as 'Balmain cemetery' >> The larger of the two, the Balmain general cemetery is now a park and its >> burial register has survived, my special >> interest is in the smaller Balmain Catholic cemetery and the challenge >> for > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > AUS-NSW-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message