Mile End Cemetery

‘It has long been a matter of serious regret that for so large a population as these towns and their environs contain, no suitable and convenient place of sepulture commensurate with the necessities of 50 or 60,000 inhabitants, has been provided, where the funeral obsequies may be performed without noise or intrusion, and where the remains of departed friends may be deposited, without the agonising apprehension of their being purloined from their silent abode for sordid gain of exposure to the dissecting knife of medical practitioner’ Statement issued by the Portsea Island General Cemetery at Mile End when it opened on 23 November 1831. This private cemetery was located on the site of the modern ferry port. The towns referred to are Portsmouth and Portsea, at this time two distinct walled entities.