The cemetery surrounds St Stephen's Anglican Church, which fronts onto Church Street, Newtown. Until the late nineteenth century the cemetery took up the whole block between Church and Australia, Lennox and Federation Streets. Gradually the church sold off the land down Australia Street, but the title was not clear for some time. Most burials in this cemetery occurred between 1848-1880. There are 18,000 people buried there.

There would have been people residing on the land occuppied by the cemetery before Australia Street was built - a few streets south there was a very large land grant and there were people dotted about living in cottages before the street was gazetted.

In Marrickville People and Places (see below, p 90) there is a photograph showing a service held in Camperdown Cemetery on 22 August 1931 - "an annual service has long been held at Camperdown Cemetery to commemorate those who died in the wreck of the Dunbar."

The burial records of the Camperdown Cemetery are held by the sexton at St Stephen's Church and a copy is also held by the Society of Australian Genealogists, Richmond Villa, 120 Kent St, Sydney.

In June 1946 an eleven year old girl, Joan Norris, was brutally murdered in the cemetery. The crime became a cause celebre and was extensively reported in the Sydney press. There was a public outcry about the badly neglected wilderness of Camperdown Cemetery which led to the resumption of nine acres (3.6ha.) for a park outside the walls, known as Camperdown Memorial Park, and the improvement of the condition of the remaining five acres (2 ha.) cemetery area.

Early undertakers in the area, and still operating in 1996, were Andrews T.and Sons, undertakers and monumental masons. The funeral procession down Australia Street of Constable John Wallace [shot outside the Court House in Australia Street on the 11th February 1906] was conducted by Ernest Andrews & Co of 53 & 55 Australia Street who made the claim of having the 'Highest Certificate in NSW for Embalming'."

Mr George Andrews was an undertaker operating in Australia St from 1895 to 1900. He was born in a cottage in that street and married in the same home. Mr Thomas James Andrews (from 1895 undertaker T.J Andrews in Aust St) appears in the Jubilee Souvenir of the Municipality of Newtown 1862 - 1912, compiled by Mr William Chubb for the Municipal Council of Newtown, 1912. The Sands Directory for 1901 lists their telephone number as 155N: no other residents or businesses had phone listings at that time.

In Marrickville People and Places (p89) there is a photograph with the caption "Horses were groomed for funerals in the nineteenth century. A horse-drawn hearse passes by the Newtown Court House in Australia Street heading towards King Street".

Sources:
Shirley Doolan, Friends of Camperdown Cemetry, St Stephens Church. (516 2123)

Jenkins, Bill, Crime Reporter

Meader Chrys, Cashman Richard & Carolan Anne: Marrickville People and Places (Hale & Iremonger, 1994),