I have been doing my family tree for over 30 years now, locally here in Perth, Western Australia, in several other Australian states, United Kingdom and Norway. Years working with databases, to get the correct results or the hidden ones shown.

It's great having comments from people from around the world so pleased that despite being unable to get there in person, that a complete stranger took a clear photograph for them with perhaps family history which was hitherto unknown, revealed.

You help me in by getting me out of the house and having a great reason for a long walk to Karrakatta Cemetery. I help YOU by taking a photograph or two - plus I get some exercise. That's the deal we strike here. I'll do the "walk" to Karrakatta Cemetery from April through November as after that it's a bit too hot (say 40˚C or over 102˚F) here in Perth in summer and a good deal of autumn too.

No volunteer is paid. We don't have any "awards" or "Brownie Points" for taking photographs be it 1 or 100,000. We aren't showered in praises of folk casually finding a relative as they view the photograph for 30 seconds and are happy to see it. It's easy to forget the volunteers who've spent countless hours, happily giving up their time to help others they'll never meet, perhaps the other side of the planet. The volunteers are basically invisible and just take these photographs for any number of reasons.

Mine is to help others with research and preserve history before it's lost, making sure it's as accurately recorded as is currently possible.

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If you want me to fill a request from a grave that I have already taken a snap for (i.e. - multiple burials in the one grave), I can help if you can't work that magic in Find-a-Grave. If you can "self service", then you have my permission to copy those photos. I'm not THAT sort of a copyright fiend. HOWEVER - for the businesses who are making rival websites or without a credit if original photographs are used in a commercial book - "You DO NOT have my permission to slurp my photographs to your website - is that clear?"

Karrakatta Cemetery Board has been "renewed" 49 sections already and another 29 "soon to be renewed" as a part of the Cemetery Boards master plan. Once they have completed this, finding an original old grave to photograph will be nigh impossible in those "renewed" areas. After they complete this, any grave headstone in Karrakatta cemetery which pre-1980's and not lucky enough to be in a "Historical Area" will probably get the answer of, "Sorry, you are too late" and show a photo with a piece of lawn or just sand, taken between two modern day memorials. Not that exciting a find in your family research.

As the Find-a-Grave website DOESN'T mention with the grave location(s) are now in a "renewed section", a seemingly valid request to get a photograph from the volunteer photographic foot-soldiers might be answered with a, "Sorry, but this area was renewed".

I'll try to add the new headstone location if it was physically moved in the "Grave Notes" section. These, I have found, can be wrong on the official Karrakatta Records. Locations being incorrect happens too frequently. Headstone re-fixing processes being so bad, they literally fall off the wall and a) Break or b) Get absolutely ruined by staff drilling multiple holes to screw the headstone back to the memorial wall c) Just are nowhere to be seen (or perhaps removed by family request).

Between WWI and WWII the records at Karrakatta are somewhat questionable in quality of entry (or poor handwriting) or incorrectly inputted during transcription into modern day computerised records. Errors of actual burials details being missing (name and date of burial mentioned but missing is the grave number) are too common. Sometimes, the actual headstone inscriptions can be the ONLY initial indicator to other burials in the same plot. Then after checking newspaper archives for Death and Funeral notices to confirm the burial took place at Karrakatta, then I'll add this into Find-a-Grave as a "Burial" or "Memorial Only" if there is no supporting evidence to an actual burial. Of course at times people were known as one name but only their official birth name was used or misspellings of either first or surnames abound with the official records (ANDERSEN or ANDERSON or Frances/Francis for example).

Then there's common use names ("nicknames") like "Jack," when they are officially listed as "John."

If your request is in a "renewed" area of Karrakatta Cemetery, from that moment on reminds me of the Marx Brother's "Tutti Fruiti Ice Cream" routine from "Day at the Races" (you can look it up on YouTube, very funny). It involves lots of cross referencing books and plot layout plans which may or may not be in their "Book of Remembrance" cabinets, within these renewed sections.

Maybe the possums steal them at night? Or perhaps those thieving magpies or maybe those rascally ravens?

Is the headstone now hidden under the shrubs in that "Garden Bed"? Many small garden beds don't even have any markings to identify them or are even shown on official cemetery maps which could contain 20 or 30 "gardens" in a section where about only half actually marked. So helpful (not!). Karrakatta have officially numbered EVERY TREE in the Karrakatta cemetery surrounds in 2024 but have failed to number all their memorial gardens. Figure that one out but please stop before you get a headache. Then there are gardens that are seem to be numbered counter-clockwise and then go numerically backwards or become oddly numbered seemly random manner throughout the rest of the section. Sequential numbering or lettering is rare in a section. Look at a renewed section map and you'll see what I mean.

Is that Australian native shrub, covered with bees/thorns/certain decapitation in the way to get decent photograph of the headstone of Uncle Freddy's headstone? You review the photograph to read to the inscription - "Uncle Freddy - 1858-1926" - hardly earth shaking details after 15 minutes since starting that particular search in a "renewed section". Now with torn clothing, cuts and stings, I cross off "Uncle Freddy" from my Find-a-Grave list.

See how easy it was to get your request filled! I've always got the cuts to prove it.

If someone's gravestone "looks unsafe", well, that's another reason that a headstone can just "disappear" - **poof*** - and it's gone, as if by magic! Pixies?

FOR RENEWED AREAS — ARCHIVED CEMETERY BOARD PHOTOGRAPHS MAY EXIST - Please follow the Metropolitan Cemetery Board Website links for their obtaining ARCHIVED PHOTOGRAPHS in Renewed Sections, as if it was the Cemetery who removed the original headstone, then it's still (currently) a free service in 2026.

HOWEVER, there was a time for a number of years that the cemetery took NO PHOTOGRAPHS (1970's-1980) or took no notice if there had ever been a memorial on the old grave headstone before "renewal" took place. They often only took ONE archive photograph, film being expensive back then, memories and the legacy of family information being cheaper, so that being only the face side whilst missing any side inscriptions of other relatives buried there.

Disappointment of some kind is almost certain for earlier "renewed sections" - especially the "Government Sponsored" burials (aka "Pauper's Burials"). The likelihood is those graves never had more than a simple wooden cross with a name on it, has long, long rotted away before renewal of that area. Contact Karrakatta Administration directly on [email protected]

Don't expect a quick answer as they are always seemingly short staffed at the Admin office.

I've noticed many cemeteries (United Kingdom and especially now those in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) charge for ANY information including the plot location. What was originally public owned records, are being sold/leased to private companies. Their shareholders demand a return on investment, so it is runs as a profit centre.

Yes, like you Torquay Cemetery in Devon, England, at £35 a plot request - and when asking for a plot layout map "We have no idea where they are buried other than the section (about 1 acre in size). There is no plot layout maps for this cemetery".

In a Victorian era cemetery? They apparently they ran around burying people, anywhere/everywhere at random in the cemetery sections. Then later they managed to add further Family burials in these "we don't know where they are buried" grave plots at later dates.

Right. Sure. Pull the other one! During a time where measurement was an art form and practiced all over the British Empire with glorious (over) documentation of EVERYTHING. They mapped Africa and India with literally "chains" (a standard Imperial measurement, no longer used) and fairly spot on a century and a half ago.

Remember if you are lucky to get any archived photographs, please put them up on the Find-a-Grave website for others in the future. Even their records often show "(It is) NOT recorded if a memorial was on this grave prior to renewal" is a good indication that a Bobcat (bulldozer) got there first. "Gosh, who'd require a photo of some old, broken, dusty grave site?"

Alas, for those gravestones, "The horse has bolted—the gate is now closed".

The Karrakatta Cemetery Board also feels that these "renewed areas" should be covered with verdant, lush grass (instead of the original dry soil since its inception in 1899) and have now installed hundreds of sprinklers connected to the limited Perth coastal ground water. In one of the driest cities on Earth! This is absolutely ridiculous. We now have some of the best watered gravestones on the planet.

I have been informed by the West Australian State Government of the following: "This water licence authorises the use of 342,800 kilolitres per annum for the irrigation of 40 hectares of lawns and gardens at Karrakatta Cemetery."

That's nearly half the total area cemetery that can be legally watered (it's about 92 hectares in total) for grass to grow. Its use of bore water stains everything a nice rusty red colour. Apparently it "enhances" the gravestones patina?

"Rest in Peace" goes the saying - but not at Karrakatta cemetery.

If you don't pay for the plot's lease every 25 years, you can find your headstone removed by an Act of State Parliament, even if you originally purchased the plot "for perpetuity" some 50 years earlier, when "perpetuity" actually meant "forever". Their dictionary definition has been crossed out. For the word "PERPETUITY" new definition now reads: "Temporary use of something - preferably about 25 years".

Let's move some goal posts.

At the Karrakatta's main entrance, in their "Waiting House", they have installed a series of huge signs bestowing that Karrakatta Cemetery is (and I quote): "The Guardian of over a century of Western Australia's social and cultural history," "Preserving Memories. Celebrating lives" and "A memorial is an enduring tribute to a person who has died". Their actions don't match their words. A shame, a great example of that modern marketing marvel called "buzz words".

An "Enduring Tribute" (to use their own marketing term) is of course, just 25 years. Silly of us to think otherwise isn't it?

Currently Find-a-Grave website is showing that Karrakatta Cemetery has about 250 outstanding requests (with 40 in the "too hard basket" which are missing death dates for a common name like "Fred Smith"). Maybe one day I or someone else will try and work those out which are possible with a bit of cross-referencing. Of course some may never be worked out if they don't appear on the Cemetery website correctly transcribed and/or have Death Notices in old newspapers. As if these people never existed.

Volunteers regularly get requests which in Karrakatta Records are shown as "Ashes scattered to the winds at the cemetery" or "Ashes taken by Administrator/Funeral Director." These will be "a bit hard" to find (i.e. impossible).

So many people click "Please take a photograph for me" to these types of cremations. We'd all love to help.... but.......

Remember that some grave (garden) location sections are so small that they don't even show up on the Cemetery's own printed maps or due to unusual numbering/section layout patterns where some grave numbers are completely missing or continue at much higher number on the very next row.

Some graves are now under access roads or even car parks around the cemetery.

After nearly 4 years going up there, I am still discovering new sections (albeit very small ones).

Oh, and please tell me if .... "You mucked that up. You photographed the wrong grave (typically uploaded to the wrong person)". I won't bite.

Let me know so that I can re-photograph it again for you.

••••CREMATORIUM ROSE GARDEN MEMORIALS••••:— Uggggh. Perhaps the worse of the Metropolitan Cemetery Board's ideas was to develop a series of Rose Gardens near their crematoria. These are say 15 metres long by 3 metres wide. The shape will vary from rectangles to sweeping, organic curves. Some are gardens which have a few rose bushes in them. Others are just totally rose gardens.

Yes, it is confusing.

One section has signage which says "LAWN Section 5A (B, C, etc.)" when ALL the memorials are actually in GARDEN BEDS and are not in "Lawns" at all.

In many cases they don't bother number the rose bed (or hide the bed number up one end, behind a thorny shrub). To add to the chaos, they do not number ANY of the memorials contained WITHIN those Cremation Rose Gardens. Since between 1943—2023, when they numbered them by "lease number for the selected plot - in the order they sold them". They are NOT sequentially numbered (1, 2, 3, 4.... more likely to be in an order like 235, 43, 135, 5, 191).

So it's a slow "look at EVERY memorial and hope you can spot the similar sized type face on a small piece of aluminium at a distance 3 metres".

Many volunteers throw up their hands in frustration give up on these cremation memorials - I don't blame them. Sometimes after going around, having someone else look, there just isn't any memorial. It's gone or "never was" - perhaps they are their ashes are there - just without a memorial as there's no law saying you "must have a memorial" - but they are buried there somewhere in that garden bed.

80 years of total chaos in the laying out of cremation memorials.

Thankfully, in a first for Karrakatta, is one new section where they have actually started their numbering - sequentially - hurray (ANVC if you want to know where). However, for the pre-2023 memorials, it's still all "dead reckoning/good luck" to find. Those cremation gardens can have up to 300 small memorials in them, in a random and not numerical, order.

Anyway it's a VERY keen eye and (lots of) good luck they are even spotted in that sea of over 300 stainless steel memorials (all about 75mm square - approx. 3" square in size). Don't forget to cover them with years of bore water stains to help in that finding process. It took me nearly 14 hours to find the 250 outstanding cremation memorial requests in 2023.

As I have spent countless (sometimes absolutely fruitless) circuits around the same rose garden bed looking for a single memorial. After 25 years, that memorial COULD HAVE BEEN removed by family request or cemetery leases expired, covered with leaves in a damp corner or just overlooked. Worse still is when the stainless steel plaque has fallen off, due to the glue failing and the gardeners just rake them up with the pile of autumn leaves. I can't find anything to help there when that happens and so many missing and loose plaques are found in the gardens. If I find one of these and can locate it's real location, I'll wedge them between two plinths (if they are close enough) and hope some kind person one day re-glues them.

If the cremation memorial is found, the information is •••VERY MINIMAL•••. For Example:

"In Memory of

Fred Nerks

1897-1972

A Good Chap"

It is a VERY rare thing to get any more information as there just isn't room on those small plaques to put much more.

Memorial cremation walls (other than the original 1940-1960's) do have larger memorials on the actual walls around the crematoria) but there's some unusual layout pattern (left-right or is it up and down or again by lease date?). Again there's no row numbering or any hints if the memorial even exists after 25 years and maybe it has since been removed by the Cemetery or by family request.

Please Karrakatta Cemetery Board, could you put just the starting point for each row on those cremation memorial walls? Maybe 001— and 020 — sort of general numbering would be a great help to the thousands of visitors. Most of the cemetery is a multi-acre game of "Hide and Seek" which I think the Cemetery Board is currently winning.

I know it's confusing. Folk regularly come up to me (as I must look like "I might know") and ask, "Where am I?" or "How do I find the exit?". Or recently by a stone mason with a huge truck, "Where is section COBE?" (Me) "Oh, on the official map at the gate you currently looking at, that's still got the old name of "Congregational-BE" - right there....(points).

Yes, a cemetery completely designed by a committee and not by a planner. Many an older person in their car as the sun is starting to set, has wound down their car window to ask: "How do I get out of here? I don't really wish to spend the night here".

I'm delighted to help you and will often clean the site of fallen twigs etc. before taking a picture for you. I'll try not to put in my own shadow the resulting image and in the event of "no visible grave" will take one near as I can to it's original position. These are NOT a mistake that you might see perhaps, "Fred Nerks's headstone" and not "Great Auntie Myrtle's."

In renewed sections, the memorial has been removed and the original burial, although still there, is now between two modern day burials - so the names on those NEW stones will certainly not match your request.

Oh, Uncle Fred is still there, he's now just between two newer burials.

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**** THIS SECTION IS **ONLY** FOR THE 0.5% OF FIND-A-GRAVE MANAGERS WHO REFUSE TO USE THE GRAVE NUMBERING FORMATS USED SINCE 2020 BY "Find-a-Grave" AT KARRAKATTA CEMETERY FROM DATA USED BY KARRAKATTA CEMETERY THEMSELVES ****

We use standard formats every day lives. You already use your address on an envelope or for a delivery in a standard format. Perhaps it's the way you give your phone number or email address. Imagine if someone didn't like standard GPS co-ordinates - because "they didn't like that format".

Confusion, errors, missed deliveries ensue.

ASK BUT ONE QUESTION:— "Who else is in this grave who isn't on the headstone inscription?" These could be remarried widows, stillborn children, married daughters and sisters. With these, the original family surname won't reveal people who share the same grave plot so you need to search by using a standard grave numbering format.

However, if someone uses variations to the standard plot numbers, this finding process will not work.

You've just made an database, used by thousands, less useful and maybe some one will miss a major breakthrough in their hunt for family tree research.

Every 3 or 4 months someone challenges the format that Karrakatta Cemetery's use. That's fine but it's only going to confuse people, maybe not yourself but certainly others in the future.

Since August 2020, Find-a-Grave has used Karrakatta Cemetery supplied data (using their concise and not the verbose grave number without using unnecessary words like "Area", "Section" "Row" (which is not a term even used by Karrakatta Records) & "Number"). Karrakatta have never used the term "Compartment" which I believe means "Section" being used in other cemeteries.

We don't address posted letters like that: (for example)

ADDRESS Karrakatta Cemetery,

STREET Railway Road SUBURB Nedlands, STATE Western Australia, POSTCODE 6009

(where the ones in BOLD are "Name fields"or "data field names" - we just don't need to use those in descriptions as it's a given). Metropolitan Cemetery Board just don't name their section signage and "on-line" in that way. Really.

Using the words "AREA" "SECTION" and "GRAVE NUMBER" in the Plot number just is not required and actually fouls database searches within Find-a-Grave for others expecting the common format when searching for married daughters of families or a remarried parent. Not everyone knows there are 4 others in that grave - so to be fair to everyone, please no, "I like it the way it is" or "It doesn't match MY records" is just having a personal preference and is NOT "the common method used both by the cemetery & Find-a-Grave website".

Please, it's nothing personal - it just helps EVERYONE.

This format is now is used on 310,000 graves of the 325,000 memorials currently in Find-a-Grave website with only a minority MANUALLY created records in non-standard formats or just entirely missing any plot number.

Please, for the sake of future generations of researchers, just allow the change that one (non-personal information) field (by volunteers often with years of knowledge about their local cemetery) and let us all use the one standard grave number format that Karrakatta Cemetery uses themselves.

Let's all use just the one to minimise errors.

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Good luck with your research.

Quentin

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

September 2026