St David`s Park Memorial WallsPrint Page

The memorial walls are made up of many of the original headstones from the park’s previous life as the Hobart colony’s first cemetery. They contains the names and details of many “First Fleeters” and many of the early settlers of Hobart Town.

St David’s was Hobart’s main cemetery and many of its most prominent citizens were buried there.  As the town expanded, the land surrounding the burial ground was gradually developed and by the 1850s people were voicing concerns about the health risks associated with burying corpses in such a thickly populated neighbourhood.  The Government passed the Cemeteries Act in 1865 and the opening of the Cornelian Bay cemetery in 1872 allowed St Davids and all the other burial grounds within the city to be closed.

The idea of redeveloping the burial ground as an ornamental garden was raised in a letter to The Mercury back in April 1890, but it was to be many years before the matter was progressed.  In May 1916 the Southern Tasmanian Town Planning Association met with the Hobart City Council to lobby for all of the city’s disused cemeteries to be turned into pleasant open places for rest and recreation.

The Council endeavored to acquire St Davids burial ground but found that the church authorities were reluctant to part with it.  Finally, in late 1919, the church accepted an offer of ₤5,000 and the exchange was duly sanctioned by Parliament in the St Davids Burial Ground Vesting and Improvement Act. In 1919 it was handed over to the City Council to be used as a recreation ground. A register compiled at the time shows that at least 900 people were once buried under the lush green turf of St David's Park. Some were reburied at Cornelian Bay, most were allowed to sleep on under the now carefully-tended gardens and lawns.

Some of the headstones are:-

Constable Joseph Howard who was shot by the "Fingal Bushrangers" , Patrick Lynch, Michael Rodgers and John Reilly at Starkie's Hut near Port Sorell on the 20th February 1848. The prisoners were brought to trial in December of that year and Lynch and Rodgers were found guilty of the murder and were sentenced to death while Reilly was acquitted.

George Kearly who was the first white male child born in Tasmania

George Weston who was an aboriginal boy under the protection of Mr Charles Connelly who erected the stone in his memory.

Jacob Bellett,  a free settler who arrived on the First Fleet.  ( His headstone says that he was 27 years old when he died, but he was actually 47 years old. )

Elizabeth Cocks, a servant  who worked for Lieutenant-Colonel and Mrs Logan.

Jacob Dennis, a colonial servant  who died in 1861.

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