St. John's Cemetery, Parramatta is Australia's oldest surviving European burial ground (est. 1790). Despite its historical significance, highlighted in the Create NSW-funded open-access project "St. John's Online" (stjohnsonline.org), the cemetery is currently only state heritage listed, which means it is ineligible for larger heritage grants that are available to sites with a higher listing (i.e. National and World heritage status). Consequently, a lot of major conservation work the cemetery needs cannot be completed due to a lack of funds.
The Friends of St. John's Cemetery, Parramatta (https://friendsofstjohnscemetery.wordpress.com/) is a local community group, which formed in June 2016 to care for this historic cemetery. But they can't do it alone: they need the community behind them!
Please donate whatever you can to support the Friends' conservation and maintenance efforts at Australia's oldest surviving European cemetery. The Friends' work includes urgent repairs on the cemetery’s valuable convict-built wall, general regular maintenance with the assistance of New South Wales Corrective Services, raising the cemetery's profile, hosting events, and ultimately a campaign to upgrade the cemetery’s current “state” heritage listing to “national” heritage listing.
100% of the proceeds go directly to the Friends and will be spent on maintenance and conservation, so every single dollar counts. No donation is too small! Simply type in the amount you would like to donate in $AUD in the designated donation area on this campaign page, or use the larger autogenerated donation amounts if those align with your preferences.
This is an invaluable resource and great achievement