Fremantle Cemetery


The Fremantle Cemetery was established in 1898 . Its 46 hectares bordered by Leach Highway, Stock Road, Carrington Street and Salisbury Road in Palmyra. We believe that strolling between the graves and in the mausoleum will give you a fair insight into the history of an area. Fremantle Cemetery is one of the finest examples. Freo is dubbed the "front gate" to Australia and it is full of folklore, history and more than a few haunted buildings. One of our most vivid encounter with a ghost happened at dusk along the footpath of the cemetery. While walking we came across a girl slowly strolling between the headstones, arranging flowers then spotting us, she started walking towards us smiling. We didn't think of it twice as we were busy putting our nose in the air and trying to sense some paranormal activity. As she came closer we noticed the girl did not carry a bag nor we saw another car parking along any of the pathways. She must be walking alone we thought. She would have been no more than 20,had wavy dark hair, brown eyes, wearing a floating black skirt and didn't seem to be distressed at all. Then we noticed her bare and slightly dirty feet and have to admit we made it for the car briskly walking then driving out of there.None of us thought she was an apparition but the thought of her being there alone barefoot with a "spaced out" smile on her face made us think she might be trouble. We just followed our first instinct. It was somewhat unusual for us considering that we are not easily scared and we both like talking to locals, even strangers and by the size and relaxed behavior of the girl later we pondered what kind of trouble could she have caused and felt like a pair of geese. It was a few weeks later when we returned not even thinking about her when she made another appearance. The only unusual thing about the meeting was that though once again she appeared to be flesh and blood she wore the exact same clothes, no bag, no other cars around and you guessed, she was barefoot. This time we were keen to wait for her to approach us but she disappeared behind a tree without a trace. As I said somewhere before, no amount of experience makes you know everything and I even know a psychic lady who happily tried to converse with an apparition without knowing it was no flesh and blood. We were so busy looking for orbs and shadows that we didn't even recognize something right front of us at the first time.
One of us grew up in Eastern Europe where the Day of the Dead is bigger than Halloween, Mothers' day or Valentine's day in western culture. It is common there to go to picnics with the family to cemeteries and remembering the dead by lighting candles. Some cultures keep cemeteries as we would keep a park. People often walk across them on their way to work, school, admiring the lush gardens, roses and trees along the way.
Old pagan beliefs teach to watch the crows and ravens in cemeteries as they are considered the messengers of "Morrigan", mistress of the underworld. We do not consider visiting cemeteries morbid or unusual, every time we travel to a town or do research we always go by the local cemetery and come out knowing more of its past. We do recommend however to have a great deal of respect when visiting the "the acres of the dead" and if you feel uncomfortable while in there or after visiting it make sure you do a little "cleansing" or "grounding" or even visiting a church if it makes you feel more comfortable. A very old folk superstition says that "to confuse a soul trying to piggyback you from a cemetery make sure you spin around a few times at the gates as you leave it".
Fremantle cemetery houses many dead folk, in the same block you could find the old and the very young, the peaceful and the disturbed, the rich and the poor, the villain and the victim, the good and the wicked.
For extra interest you could look into the town history then research the cemetery database.
Among the many buried in Fremantle one of our favourite character Moondyne Joe deserves a visit. He is buried in a pauper's grave (580A). Oh, and if he says hello to you make sure you let us know.