ST ANDREWS GARDENS PEDDER STREET/HIGH STREET, LAUNCESTON

ST ANDREWS GARDENS - View from High Street

There are a lot of little plots of land in Launceston, easily overlooked, that hold many stories. Such is the case with “St Andrews Gardens” in High Street. The title is perhaps a little overambitious as its more a case of a scrubby paddock with a few trees than structured gardens as such. In any case, the real story lies underneath the rather unkempt grass, because for almost a hundred years (1832 – 1938) this was the location of the city's Presbyterian Cemetery.

Newspaper reports from the years between 1928 and 1952 tended to talk about “the problem” of the Scottish Cemetery. By 1944 it was referred to as an “eyesore”, although there were still 178 graves. A letter to the editor of The Examiner makes reference to a tomb, forced open revealing 5 coffins. Neither the council nor the church seemed keen to take on the responsibility of its development, but eventually in 1952, the area became a park. Some of the graves were relocated to Carr Villa, others remain, hidden from view, and unmarked.

James Robertson who built Struan (see a previous post) was among early Launceston identities to be buried there.

(A little PS that has nothing to do with St Andrew's Park. Whilst searching through TROVE articles for more information I came across a letter to the editor published in January 1872, which suggested that geography would suggest that gold could well be found in “a vacant piece of ground, uncultivated, near some houses and cottages somewhere in a straight line halfway between the Scottish Cemetery fence and the Hobart Town Main Road, forming almost the lowest part of the valley there, going north to the city of Launceston.” So South Launceston residents, if you need some incentive to dig in the garden this weekend................)