Rookwood Old Wesleyan is a portion of Rookwood General Cemetery, said to be the largest cemetery in the southern hemisphere with total estimated burials approaching one million. This particular portion contains several thousand graves, many now unmarked due to subsidence and vandalism over the years and to earlier periods of neglect. Inscriptions found so far suggest that this portion came into general use around 1840, although several earlier dates have been discovered.
These days, the cemetery is well cared for but the TLC came too late to save some historic stones. Many have fallen and broken, in some cases only fragments of the inscriptions remain and other previously existing headstones have disappeared. Unpruned trees and shrubs springing up on grave sites or close to headstones, although beautiful, make access to many of the inscriptions very difficult.
Michael Brookhouse has digitally recorded and listed all visible inscriptions in this portion. In compiling the list of inscriptions, we consulted the NSW indices of births, deaths and marriages, the Australian War Memorial online military rolls, the Bi-centennial listing of inscriptions compiled by the Society of Australian Genealogists in the mid-1980s and the online cemetery name search facility for additional information.