Karrakatta Historical Walk Trails

The guardian of over a century of Western Australia’s social and cultural history, Karrakatta has many stories to tell.

The first burial took place at Karrakatta Cemetery on April 24, 1899. The deceased was a young wheelwright named Robert Creighton who died of typhoid fever at the age of 29. His simple grave and headstone lie in the Church of England section where he was interred by Funeral Directors Donald J Chipper. 

Since that day in 1899, over 201,000 burials have taken place at Karrakatta Cemetery and since the crematorium opened in 1937 there have been over 189,000 cremations. 

Walk Trails

Over a century of Western Australia’s social and cultural history is contained in the 98.34 hectares that make up the extensive gardens of Karrakatta Cemetery. To enable the public to easily access this important part of society’s past, the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board has mapped out historical walk trails. The trails are easy to walk and lead you past the graves and memorials of famous and infamous people. 

Maps of the walk trails are available from the Administration Building near the entrance to Karrakatta Cemetery, or can be downloaded below. Signs located at each point of interest contain unique QR codes which can be scanned via smart phone, allowing you access to further information. 

Click here to download: Karrakatta Walk Trail One – Map

Karrakatta Walk Trail One – Points of Interest

Click here to download: Karrakatta Walk Trail Two – Map

Karrakatta Walk Trail Two – Points of Interest

Additions to Historical/Heritage Walk Trails – Submissions

The MCB currently has three walk trails (two at Karrakatta and one at Fremantle) with locations sequentially numbered and marked with physical signage.  These are designed to offer visitors a logical route of travel as they move from one location to the next. Whilst there are no current plans to create additional trails or to modify the existing trails, we recognise that the locations featured on the existing trails are by no means exhaustive of the countless sites of historical import within our cemeteries. 

We occasionally receive requests and applications from members of the public to have graves or memorial locations added to the trails and, whilst we can’t accommodate these requests as it would require a re-numbering of all existing trail locations, we do maintain an active file of requests should the time come when we can consider additional trails or need to replace the physical signage infrastructure on the existing trails. 

If you would like to make a submission for consideration, we would ask that you email us at mcb@mcb.wa.gov.au with Heritage Trails Submission in the subject line and include submission documentation as part of your message.

When compiling a submission, please consider the following broad guidelines:

• Outline your relationship to the location in question (e.g., relative, researcher).
• Outline why you think the location should be included. This could be the role the person held when alive, their fame or infamy,  their contribution to Western Australia or just a collection of interesting facts related to the individual. 
• If you have images or documents (published or personal research papers, articles etc.), please provide them in digital form and include a notation related to the source. If imagery is being provided from personal family collections, please confirm that we (the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board) have your permission, as a family representative, to use the images.

By building an active file of potential locations it will make the task of developing new trails or modifying the existing trails much easier when the time comes. We appreciate and willingly receive submissions.