Rookwood Necropolis

Conservation Management Plan
Heritage Advice
Heritage Maintenance

Rookwood Necropolis Trust

Rookwood, NSW

For over 150 years Rookwood has encapsulated the social history of Sydney, and changing attitudes towards death and burial.

GML advice guides the ongoing management of this unique, heritage-listed cultural landscape.

In 2014, Rookwood Necropolis—the largest necropolis in the southern hemisphere and Australia’s most multicultural cemetery—faced considerable operational and maintenance challenges. Planning was required for a sustainable future. GML worked with Rookwood’s stakeholders to develop conservation management policies that provide practical advice for all those who care for and make decisions that affect the Necropolis and its significant cultural and natural heritage. We explored the archaeology of the landscape and re-examined its significant buildings and monuments, setting priorities and guidelines for their maintenance and management. GML’s conservation management plan dovetails with other management documents to provide a robust, integrated management framework to see Rookwood prosper as one of the world’s great burial grounds—a garden of memory for millions.