Arthur Street cemetery was the first cemetery built in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It is situated on the

City Rise City Rise is an inner suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. One of the city's older suburbs, it is, as its name suggests, centred on the slopes which lie close to the city centre, particularly those closest to the city's original heart of ...

, on the corner of Arthur Street and Rattray Street, on the slopes overlooking the city's centre, which lies 500 metres to the east. The first burial at the site was of surveyor's labourer James Campbell, buried on October 29, 1846, over a year before the settlement of Dunedin was founded in 1848. Coincidentally, the first christening service to be held in Dunedin occurred on the same day; both services were conducted by Rev. Charles Creed. The cemetery served the young settlement until the early 1860s, when the rapid expansion of Dunedin due to the

Central Otago Gold Rush The Otago Gold Rush (often called the Central Otago Gold Rush) was a gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand. This was the country's biggest gold strike, and led to a rapid influx of foreign miners to the area – ...

made its location inconvenient. The cemetery was closed and the remains relocated in 1865. The location of the cemetery is marked by an

obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...

, erected in 1880, which is modelled on

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Cleopatra's Needle Cleopatra's Needles are a separated pair of ancient Egyptian obelisks now in London and New York City. The obelisks were originally made in Heliopolis (modern Cairo) during the New Kingdom period, inscribed by the 18th dynasty pharaoh Thutmose I ...

. The monument lists the names of the 60 or so known burials at the site. Many of those buried were children, and several were people who died at sea on their way to New Zealand. The site has been used for several purposes since the cemetery closed, notably a military barracks during the 1860s, a meteorological station, and a lunatic asylum. Middle District School, one of the city's first (now Arthur Street School), moved to occupy part of the site in 1877.Herd, J. and Griffiths, G. J. (1980) ''Discovering Dunedin.'' Dunedin: John McIndoe. The site is now partly in the grounds of

Otago Boys' High School , motto_translation = "The ‘right’ learning builds a heart of oak" , type = State secondary, day and boarding , established = ; years ago , streetaddress= 2 Arthur Street , region = Dunedin , state = Otago , zipcod ...

and partly a public park, Arthur Street Reserve.

References

External links

* {{coord, -45.873342, 170.494439, display=title Cemeteries in Dunedin