ANZAC Day 2016 marks the end of our year-long campaign that was established to honour unofficial service men and women interred at Rookwood, who played a part in World War 1.

Over the last 12 months RGCRT staff volunteers have identified and documented 1654 marked and unmarked war graves of ANZACs located throughout Rookwood Cemetery.

This significant campaign was undertaken to commemorate the Centennial year of the ANZAC tradition. It involved our staff volunteering their time to locate unofficial war graves, research and document the stories of those interred within, and clean individual sites. As a sign of respect to these fallen WW1 soldiers, we also conducted services at each site. During each service poppies were placed on graves and one minute of silence was undertaken.

Our ANZAC project is a key part of a dedicated scope of work, known internally as the Monument Safety and Conservation Survey, which has been earmarked for completion by 2018. This project will ensure not only the safety and longevity of each grave site located within Rookwood Cemetery, it will further serve Rookwood’s rich history long into the future.

Over the next 12 months, we plan to extend our ANZAC campaign, by completing monumental repairs on the more deteriorated unofficial war graves, while also determining how best to share the many fascinating stories that we have ‘unearthed’.

Help us to grow our ANZAC Database

To keep the ANZAC spirit alive we are appealing to the public to assist in identifying any family members interred at Rookwood who served in the Great War.  If you are able to support this initiative by providing information, stories and/or photos please contact us.