SITE OF SKINNER STREET CEMETERY

Statement of Significance

Refer to Heritage Council of Western Australia's Register of Heritage Places - Register and Assessment Documentation for John Curtin College of the Arts.

Physical Description

Refer to Heritage Council of Western Australia's Register of Heritage Places - Register and Assessment Documentation for John Curtin College of the Arts.

History

Refer to Heritage Council of Western Australia's Register of Heritage Places - Register and Assessment Documentation for John Curtin College of the Arts. Skinner Street Cemetery was the main burial ground for Fremantle from 1852 to 1899. Although the cemetery formally opened in 1852, the first known burial was Alice Wray, the 15-year old daughter of Lt Wray, Royal Engineer, in 1851. The cemetery closed in November 1899 when it was replaced with the Carrington Street Cemetery. Burials of family members were permitted at Skinner Street in special circumstances, and the last burial was in 1917. The cemetery fell into disrepair from around 1909 and, following public concern at its condition, some remains were exhumed in the 1930s. Approximately 200 headstones were relocated to Carrington Street Cemetery in 1935, leading to an estimate that remains of approximately 200 burials remain at the Skinner Street site. The area was used as an anti-aircraft battery during World War Two, and from 1941 manual arts training associated with Fremantle Technical High School was relocated to the site. In an expansion of secondary education across the metropolitan area in the a1950s, John Curtin College of the Arts (then John Curtin Senior High School) opened at the place in 1956. The cemetery site was levelled for use as playing fields with the only visual remains being the limestone wall aligned with the Vale Street boundary.

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