From early pakeha settlement in Auckland, until the end of 1909, there were in fact five separate cemeteries run by five separate boards of trustees. It was not until the end of 1909 that they came under the unitary control of the Auckland City Council.

The Anglican burial grounds are about half a mile from the centre of the town, on the sides of two of the ridges which slope down gradually to the harbour".  It was formally consecrated on Sunday 24 July 1842. Of the nineteen hundred people living in Auckland in 1842 no less than eleven hundred classified themselves as Anglicans.

The one acre Jewish, or Hebrew, cemetery was formed from a Crown Grant dated 24 November 1843, while the five acres Catholic cemetery passed to Bishop Pompallier on 16 September 1852.
The three acres Presbyterian cemetery was formally confirmed by a Crown Grant dated 8 April 1869, while the three acres Wesleyan cemetery was not vested until 11 May 1872.

Despite the above official dates, the different denominations were using their respective areas from at least 1848.

The English part lies on the left (east) hand: it has no walks or plantations, no flowers or shrubs, that I could see, on or around any of the graves. The stones, for the most part plain as plain could be, with wooden palings around them.

The Roman Catholic division was much in the same style, with very little attempt at taste or ornament; but it has the advantage in point of situation, being higher, drier, and more cheerful looking than the English side, not so much overgrown with the rank weeds, heath, and ferns.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built on Symonds Street, just to the South of the Anglican cemetery, and was opened by Bishop Selwyn on 27 August 1865. Not consecrated, this acted as a mortuary chapel for Anglicans, while the Catholic Saint Francis de Salles mortuary chapel was opened in 1866, at the corner of Symonds Street and East Street.

Around July 1887 the Anglican sexton created a list of those he believed were buried in the Anglican section.

Burials continued in the cemeteries for the remainder of the nineteenth century, with the next major change coming with the construction of Grafton bridge. The Auckland Cemetery Bridge and City Borrowing Act of 1905 granted the Auckland City Council the power to disinter graves that were in the way of construction.

A chapel had been built in the Jewish cemetery, adjacent to Karangahape Road, in 1850. From the late 1930's the Jewish section was managed by the Auckland Beth Israel Trust Board, with the Auckland City Council turning the remainder of the acre into a park. In 1954 the original timber Jewish chapel was replaced.

Today the cemetery, having regard to its topography and its difficult layout, is reasonably tidy, but the presence of neglected headstones leaves much to be desired".

In September 1969 a memorial was consecrated in the Anglican section, near the grave of Governor Hobson. Panels were inscribed with the names of those believed to have been moved from the Anglican section, cremated and returned to the cemetery. The remains were reburied underneath the panels. On the Catholic side a similar memorial was erected, with Catholic remains reburied under the plaques.

click here for a  panoramic view of the cemetery

The roses in the cemeteries

The Symonds cemeteries in Auckland have a special importance in the history of the Old roses in New Zealand and its reminiscence through the Heritage Roses movement.
The Grafton cemetery in particular is one of the important references in Nancy Steen's 'The Charm of old roses'.
This year, the Heritage Society moved some roses from the Nancy Steen gardens to the cemetery.