Save the Lewisham graves at Rookwood Cemetery

Early History
In 1853, Archbishop Polding bought 12 acres of land in Petersham and so began the parish of St Thomas. The First burial that took place in the cemetery in 1863 was that of Patrick McGuirk. In December of 1884, the Petersham Council closed the Cemetery to new burials with an exception to vaults or special permission effective from the 19th of January 1885. At the time, the Cemetery was the principal Catholic burial ground in Sydney, hundreds of families protested and signed petitions but it was to no avail.
A small number of people who died before 1853, were later re-buried at Petersham. The remains of some of those people had been transferred from the Devonshire Street Cemetery in 1901. Some of those removals are now in the Lewisham section at Rookwood.
In 1925 there was a proposal to increase the number of railway tracks which ran through a portion of the cemetery to 6 tracks, the NSW parliament passed an act named Lewisham Cemetery Act. Act no. 24, 1925, This act made provisions for the removal of human remains and certain slabs and tombstones from the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Lewisham and for the reinterment of such remains and the re-erection of such slabs and tombstones elsewhere.
Work commenced in 1926 and over 400 bodies were removed to Rookwood Cemetery.
Whats happening now
Although once Rookwood admitted the remains from Lewisham were infact buried at Rookwood, as seen in the Rookwood necropolis plan of management 1993, volume 5 page 206, The catholic office now claims no remains from the lewisham cemetery were buried at Rookwood. There is a plethora of newspaper articles dated between 1926-1934 which state the remains of those people were re-buried at Rookwood and that their headstones were re-erected over the new graves. Some articles mention which section they were buried near, some articles mention they were taken to Rookwood via motor lorry in groups of 50 at a time, some articles even describe what was in the coffins such as love letters, locks of hair, a beautifully carved box, medals, rings, earings and so on. A representative of the Catholic Office has told me they want to remove the headstones to develop the site which to my understanding means they plan on reusing the site for fresh burials at some stage. There is now a sign in the Lewisham section at Rookwood notifying the public the relocation of the headstones will take place during 2017. Considering the Catholic Office has admitted to me in person that they don't know if the remains from Lewisham are there or not, (they have no written evidence that they are not) and considering those people have already been moved once and some even twice, i believe the Catholic office should leave them be to not only let them rest in peace but also to preserve an early historical part of the cemetery.
I believe the Lewisham Section at Rookwood is such an important piece of Australian History and the removal of the headstones from the graves and the denial that the remains were buried there is a perversion of history and will deprive future generations the opportunity of paying their respects to the final resting place of their ancestors and in turn destroy a unique and sacrosanct piece of Australian history.

Proof the remains are there include a book published in 1999 titled Petersham Cemetery A history by Kevin Quinlan. The book can be viewed at the Burwood Library. Included in the book is a layout of graves and unmarked graves including a row from the Concord Cemetery which were reintered in that section in 1937, There is also a concord cemetery act no 15, 1937.
The Lewisham act no 24, 1925.
Various news paper articles and notices which are published on trove via the National Library of Australia.
The Rookwood Necropolis plan of management 1993, volume 5,
There is also a book called the lewisham book which the catholic office have refused me to access because they said the book is too big, and it breaches privacy (even though i am the great great great grand daughter to 4 people buried there)