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St Thomas Rest Park
St Thomas Rest Park
	Headstones and monuments in St Thomas' Rest Park
Details
Established	1845 (as a cemetery)
Location	West Street, Crows Nest, Lower North Shore, Sydney, New South Wales
Country	Australia
Type	Historic cemetery and urban park
Coordinates	33°49′26″S 151°12′26″E / 33.824026°S 151.207271°E
Created	1974 (as a park)
Operated by	North Sydney Council (since 1967)
Open	Open all hours
Website	www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/Recreation_Facilities/Parks_Reserves/Search_Parks/St_Thomas_Rest_Park

St Thomas Rest Park, located in West Street, Crows Nest, New South Wales, Australia, is the site of the first cemetery on Sydney's North Shore. It is the largest park in the densely populated Crows Nest area.^[1]

Cemetery

The land that now contains the St Thomas' cemetery site was granted, in 1821, to Edward Wollstonecraft.^[2] The land for the cemetery was donated to the Anglican Parish of St Leonards in 1845 by the prominent landowner and merchant, Alexander Berry, whose wife Elizabeth had inherited it on the death of her brother Edward Wollstonecraft.^[3]

Wollstonecraft had died in 1832 and was buried in the Devonshire Street Cemetery. His remains were later moved to a tomb constructed in the St Thomas' Cemetery by Alexander Berry for his wife. Berry was also later entombed there. The tomb is still standing in the grounds of the Rest Park.

In 1967 the Cemetery was handed over to North Sydney Council by an Act of Parliament granting the area as 'community land' and allowing its conversion from a cemetery into a Rest Park. The new park opened in 1974. The sexton's cottage, dating from around 1850, was restored and opened as a museum in 1985. Many monuments and headstones are located within the sandstone-edged historic precincts while others are scattered around the Rest Park. An interpretive history trail provides 24-hour access to historical information.^[1]

The cemetery contains one Commonwealth war grave, of an Australian Army officer, Capt. Richard Gordon Dibbs.^[4] The Park contains the headstones of thirteen members of four generations of the Dibbs family, the oldest being Sophia Elizabeth Dibbs, born in Sydney in 1809, and mother of George Dibbs (grandson of George Dibbs, below) of World War II.^[5]

Notable people buried in St Thomas' cemetery

Robert Palmer Abbott, colonial politician and 5th Mayor of East St Leonards^[6]
Charles Badham, classical philologist
George Barney, Royal Engineers officer, Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of North Australia, Surveyor-General of New South Wales
Ellis Bent, colonial judge-advocate
Alexander Berry and wife Elizabeth
Barcroft Henry Boake, poet, and his father Barcroft Capel Boake, photographer
George Meares Countess Bowen, military officer and early colonial settler, and others in his family
Matthew Charlton, 1st Mayor of the Borough of Victoria^[7]
Rev. W.B. Clarke, rector of St Thomas church and "Father of Australian Geology"
Thomas John Cook, 2nd Mayor of the Borough of Victoria^[8]
George Dibbs, premier of New South Wales in the late 1800s, prior to Federation
William Dind, hotelier, theatrical manager and 3rd Mayor of East St Leonards^[9]
James Graham Goodenough, naval commander
Hovenden Hely, explorer and politician
Bernhardt Holtermann, gold miner, businessman, and politician
Isaac Ellis Ives, 39th Mayor of Sydney, 3rd Mayor of the Borough of Victoria, MP for St Leonards
Benjamin Jenkins, sea captain, owner of Don Bank, and 4th Mayor of St Leonards^[10]
Peter Kempermann, German diplomat and consul-general in Sydney^[11]
Edward Lord, son of Simeon Lord, City of Sydney Treasurer, 2nd Mayor of East St Leonards^[12]
John Frederick Mann, explorer, member of Leichhardt's first expedition^[13]
James Milson, pioneer, landowner and namesake of Milsons Point
Alfred George Milson, grandson of James Milson, 10th Mayor of North Sydney^[14]
Conrad Martens, artist
Robert Moodie, 5th Mayor of the Borough of Victoria^[15]
Joseph Musgrave, bowler and 2nd Mayor of St Leonards^[16]
John Ovens, explorer
William Tucker, 1st Mayor of East St Leonards^[17]
William Waterhouse, 7th Mayor of the Borough of Victoria^[18]
John Whitton, railway pioneer
Edward Wollstonecraft, pioneer
Montague Younger, musician

References

^ ^a ^b "St Thomas Rest Park". North Sydney Council. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
^ State Library of New South Wales (1993). "Guide to the papers of the Berry, Wollstonecraft and Hay Families" (PDF). Retrieved 20 October 2009.
^ "From Land Grant to Subdivision" (PDF). Retrieved 6 March 2014.
^ "Images from the St Thomas' Cemetery Headstones Index Collection".
^ "CWGC Cemetery Report". Detail from casualty record.
^ "Death of Mr. R. P. Abbott". The Australian Star. No. 4279. New South Wales, Australia. 1 November 1901. p. 7. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
^ "Personal". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 21576. New South Wales, Australia. 14 March 1907. p. 6. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
^ "Advertising". The Daily Telegraph. No. 3677. New South Wales, Australia. 11 April 1891. p. 8. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
^ "The Late Mr W. Dind". The Australian Star. No. 2176. New South Wales, Australia. 26 January 1895. p. 11. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
^ "Death of Captain Jenkins". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 19756. New South Wales, Australia. 6 July 1901. p. 14. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
^ "The Late Herr Kempermann". The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser. New South Wales, Australia. 17 November 1900. p. 1181. Retrieved 11 August 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
^ "Death of Mr. Edward Lord". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 14555. New South Wales, Australia. 19 November 1884. p. 7. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
"The Late Mr. Edward Lord". The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser. Vol. XXXVIII, no. 1273. New South Wales, Australia. 29 November 1884. p. 1094. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
^ "John Frederick Mann". Australian Dictionary of Biography.
^ "Mr. Alfred G. Wilson". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 28099. New South Wales, Australia. 26 January 1928. p. 10. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
^ "Death of Mr. Robert Moodie". Evening News. No. 12935. New South Wales, Australia. 23 November 1908. p. 5. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
^ "Death of a Bowler". The Daily Telegraph. No. 6932. New South Wales, Australia. 28 August 1901. p. 7. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
^ "Family Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 15603. New South Wales, Australia. 28 March 1888. p. 1. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
^ "Family Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 17183. New South Wales, Australia. 17 April 1893. p. 8. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
"Family Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 17175. New South Wales, Australia. 7 April 1893. p. 8. Retrieved 15 April 2019.