I have been doing my family tree for over 29 years now, locally here in Perth, Western Australia, in several other Australian states, United Kingdom and Norway. I can guarantee "Zero Emissions" when getting your photographs at Karrakatta Cemetery - I walk there!

You help me in by getting me out of the house and having a great reason for a long walk to Karrakatta Cemetery. I help YOU by taking a photograph or two - plus I get some exercise. That's the deal we strike here. I'll do the "walk" to Karrakatta Cemetery from April through November as after that it's a bit too hot (say 40˚C or over 102˚F) here in Perth in summer and a good deal of autumn too.

____________________________________________

**** THIS SECTION IS **ONLY** FOR THE 0.5% OF FIND-A-GRAVE MANAGERS WHO ARE HERE TO SEE WHO I AM. THE ONES WHO REFUSE TO USE THE FORMATS USED BY THE MAJORITY AT KARRAKATTA CEMETERY - THAT FIELD BEING PLOT LOCATION AND FORMATS ****
For all other users - you can skip this bit or read how to use the FIND routines in Find-a-Grave website to find multiple burials in the one grave. Presuming they are all in the same Plot Location Format. Maybe you'll relate to what written abuse (more than just a refusal) I've had from some very "unusual" managers of some memorials. I've filtered most of it so you don't need to cringe. If you are a manager who's received one of these "well over the top" comments fired back at you, you are not alone. Some people refuse to see logic, common sense and lack the empathy to help others in the Find-a-Grave Community. After all, the foot soldiers here are all volunteers. Nothing takes the wind out of a new volunteers sails like some "managers" comments.

BACKGROUND OF GRAVE NUMBERING FORMATS USED AT KARRAKATTA:
Who invented the formats like Wesleyan-FA-0245? Why none other than Karrakatta Cemetery themselves - the PRIMARY SOURCE. This same data was imported into Find-a-Grave website some years ago. So the majority follow the correct format. That's over 98% of all 295,000 burial plots held on Karrakatta Find-a-Grave website following the majority used format. I have no control over that so please don't bother to send your emails about which say something about "My personal pet format".

REASONS WHY DATABASES USE STANDARD FORMATS
Let's give you some reasons. If you read the entire thing and still think you custom format is "the one", then talk to Find-a-Grave Support to get ALL the graves standardised to YOUR preferred format. Don't rant to me about it as I'm not listening as I don't have the ability to change the 290,000 of the 300,000 which are correct.
Yes, to use a different format is actually not helping anyone when they do a search. Look at the records. Really, look at them. Out of 100 graves, you might find 1 or 2 which are in a different format to what is suggested to you. It's probably not in your preferred format but I kindly asked a change, "Could you please change that Plot Location description". Sorry to hear that you are offended enough to write a volunteer a rude reply.
Please, read the description below and then just correct it to the one the majority used at Karrakatta Cemetery and move on with your life.

For a sub-set of the 0.5%'ers, apparently the Lizard People have taken over Karrakatta Cemetery Records as well as the Find-a-Grave website and are planning to take over the plot they manage. It's ONLY a Plot Number. It's better that it's consistent with the majority of records.
Having a SEARCHABLE, consistent format is the way to help everyone. That's the end game here - SEARCHABLE.

CHECK YOUR FORMAT
Don't believe your one isn't the most dominate one in Karrakatta Cemetery? Check the five graves EITHER SIDE of your managed grave memorial.
Don't know how to do this in Find-a-Grave? They do have a very good HELP menu. You can do all sorts of things other than to type a known name. What about the other burials in the same grave you didn't know about. A different surname of a buried married sister perhaps. You will find them if the PRIMARY DATA is correct - which it is, 98% of the time.
Try it now. It takes about 1 minute to do a search over 10 graves.
Did you notice something? How many did your format found?
Now try the suggested majority format on the exact same 10 graves.

REAL WORLD EXAMPLE WHY AT KARRAKATTA ONE FORMAT DOMINATES 98%
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE.
Here's a real world example of a what a "manager" who refused the suggested plot format vs their preferred Plot Location format. This is from 1st May 2024) and is a great example as it shows everything which can go wrong.
REAL EXAMPLE:— Their preferred and somewhat verbose format: "Wesleyan Area, Section DA, Grave" vs "Wesleyan DA" (which is concise) format which was suggested as a change.
RESULTS
Using their format - 2 burials in the entire Section their burial was in.
Using the suggested format - 1,194 burials in that same Section.

ONE EXTRA BONUS WHEN THE POPULAR FORMAT WAS USED
Their format they knew of ONE burial - as there was a headstone WITHOUT all the burials inscribed. I was in possession of a complete burial list for this section - I found an ADDITIONAL 2 burials - in the same grave. Sure I didn't find theirs - but the headstone said that name anyway. Their format found only 33% of the total number of burials in that one grave.

SUMMARY - THE OVERALL WINNER
Their preferred format - 2 burials.
The suggested format - 1,194 burials.
That's a 600:1 ratio.
You are 600% more likely to discover extra burials if the Plot Location was used - I've seen this from Section to Section at Karrakatta Cemetery as well. Their format was 0.17% used by the other burials in that section. Yet I got a very rude email saying that it was myself "peddling a pet personal format." I'll always tend to err to the side of the majority. 99.83% in that particular section.

No "if's or but's". The evidence speaks for itself. No. It's not "my preferred format" - I never invented it verse one which is fails to show success during a SEARCH.

For a less active user of Find-a-Grave website, they may have thought they were being correct at the time they manually created their new grave memorial. They just ACCEPT the change, happy there's now photographs of their managed grave for the first time.

Others might even know the name of the person(s) buried in that plot - even when there's no or an incomplete list on the memorial stone. They could have created the Find-a-Grave Memorial using the formats they knew from their own local cemetery in another state or country.

That's when I will then request a change I use the MOST COMMONLY USED FORMAT used at Karrakatta Cemetery on Find-a-Grave. Only those ones that "search" well. It's a suggestion, not a call to arms as some "managers" seem to think.

I am happy to say that out of 50 Plot location suggestions, 95% will accept the change. 4.5% just don't read their email, however, 0.5% feel it's a conspiracy and a cheek someone should ask for a Plot Location format to be altered. I know, I've read your venom filled emails. Talk about over-reacting to a polite request.

WHY YOU SHOULD DO IT NOW?
There are at least 16 ENTIRE sections to be bulldozed by Karrakatta Cemetery in the next 1 to 5 years.
Let that sink in for a moment.
ENTIRE. SECTION. BULLDOZED.
Loss of all the surface memorials to the un-financial, non-famous graves those not a Commonwealth War Grave.
GONE FOREVER.
These are to be replaced with new burials between the (few) historical ones, made from nice straight lines of concrete, with new uniform sized, marble and granite headstones which will NOT be stating your relatives name just 1 metre beside them. Forgotten. Except on Find-a-Grave website and any archives of Karrakatta Cemetery records.

I've been working for 4 months trying to get at least one LAST photograph in each of the Anglican and Wesleyan sections before they gone for good. Once the bulldozers have done their work, with the last semi-trailer carting the headstones away to the local tip in any one of the 16 sections earmarked after permanent "renewal".

OTHER NOTES
a) The majority formats used at Karrakatta Cemetery (over 98% are following the same format - I'm not correcting a comma or a space when there should be say, a hyphen, as ALL still are searchable without issues). So four choices - other than a custom one.

b) Words such as "Grave", "Area" and "Section" are already IMPLIED.
Does a policeman checking your drivers licence write it in his notebook as "ADDRESS: 123 Smith Street, SUBURB: Big Town, STATE: West of Nowhere - likewise, including the words SECTION, AREA and PLOT are all implied and are not used in Karrakatta Cemetery records (over 98% of the time).

Using a custom "Plot Location description" WILL SKEW a search for both yourself and others. Especially if each manager uses their personal format.

Find-a-Grave website is really (shock) a DATABASE under a webpage.

Your refusal is certainly not improving the experience of others. Many of whom haven't even started their family history journey. Help others. They helped you making Find-a-Grave what it is today - over 98% correct (at least at Karrakatta).

IF YOU STILL LIKE YOUR PERSONAL FORMAT
Knock yourselves out BUT put your custom format where it belongs - in the "Grave Info" field where it will cause not skew a SEARCH.

FORMATS THAT DO WORK DURING A PLOT LOCATION SEARCH (and there's even MORE that will work, I've just put in 4 very common ones).
Examples of working and searchable formats. Yes they are concise too:

1) Wesleyan FC-0654

2) Wesleyan-FC-0654

3) Wesleyan, FC, 0654

4) Wesleyan FC 0654

**** END OF COMMON SENSE AND BACK TO SOME FUN ****
____________________________________________________________

If you want me to fill a request from a grave that I have already taken a snap for (i.e. - multiple burials in the one grave), I can help if you can't work that magic in Find-a-Grave. If you can "self service", then you have my permission to copy those photos. I'm not THAT sort of a copyright fiend. For the firms who are making rival websites - "You DO NOT have my permission to slurp my photographs - is that clear?"

If you DO wish for me to do that, could I ask you to give me the Find-a-Grave Memorial ID's, first names (including middle name) and Surname, Grave Number for all the parties involved as it REALLY DOES save me a lot of time trying to find them by name as often I'll need to double check against the Metropolitan Cemetery Board Website.

Karrakatta Cemetery Board has been "renewed" 43 sections already and another 32 "soon to be renewed" as a part of the Cemetery Boards "master plan." Once they have completed this, finding an original old grave to photograph will be nigh impossible in those "renewed" areas. After they complete this, any grave headstone in Karrakatta cemetery which pre-1980's and not lucky enough to be in a "Historical Area" will probably get the answer of, "Sorry, you are too late".

As the Find-a-Grave website DOESN'T mention with the grave location(s) are now in a "renewed section", a seemingly valid request to get a photograph from the volunteer photographic foot-soldiers might be answered with a, "Sorry, but this area was renewed". I'll try to add the new headstone location if it was moved if it is mentioned so on the Cemeteries own "notes". These, I have found, can be wrong. Locations being incorrect or as is happening too frequently, their fixing processes so bad, they literally fall off the wall and a) Break or b) Get absolutely ruined by staff drilling multiple holes to screw the headstone back to the wall c) Just are nowhere to be seen (or perhaps removed by family request). Between WWI and WWII the records at Karrakatta are somewhat questionable in quality of entry or subsequent transcription into their computer records. Errors in and actual burials are missing (name and date of burial mentioned - but missing is the grave number). The actual headstone can be the only indicator to other burials. Then after checking newspaper archives for Death and Funeral notices to confirm the burial took place at Karrakatta, then I'll add this into Find-a-Grave.

If your request is in a "renewed" area of Karrakatta Cemetery from that moment on it reminds me of the Marx Brother's "Tutti Fruiti Ice Cream" routine from "Day at the Races" (you can look it up on YouTube, very funny) - but it involves lots of cross referencing books and plans which may or may not be up at the Cemetery in their "Book of Remembrance" cabinets in these renewed sections. Maybe the possums steal them at night? Or perhaps those thieving magpies or the rascally ravens?

Is the headstone now hidden under the shrubs in that "Garden Bed"? Many small garden beds don't even have a markings to identify them or shown on official cemetery maps as there could be any of 20 or 30 "gardens" in a section - with about half actually marked. Those that are seem to be numbered counter-clockwise at the back and then oddly numbered is a seemly random manner throughout the rest of the section.
Is that Australian native shrub, covered with bees/thorns/certain decapitation in the way to get decent photograph of the headstone of Uncle Freddy's headstone? You review the photograph to read to the inscription, "Uncle Freddy - 1858-1926", hardly earth shaking details after 15 minutes since starting that particular search for a "renewed section". Now with torn clothing, cuts and stings, I cross off "Uncle Freddy" from my Find-a-Grave list.
See how easy it was to get your request filled! I've always got the cuts to prove it.

If someone's gravestone "looks unsafe", well, that's another reason that a headstone can just "disappear" - poof - and it's gone as if by magic! Pixies?

FOR RENEWED AREAS — ARCHIVED CEMETERY BOARD PHOTOGRAPHS MAY EXIST - Please follow the Metropolitan Cemetery Board Website links for their obtaining ARCHIVED photographs, as if it was the Cemetery who removed the headstone, then it's still (currently) a free service.
HOWEVER, there was a time for a number of years that the cemetery took NO PHOTOGRAPHS (1970-1980) or took no notice if there had ever been a memorial on the old grave headstone before "renewal" took place. There may have only taken ONE archive photograph - that being only the face side whilst missing any side inscriptions of other relatives buried there. Disappointment of some kind is almost certain for earlier "renewed sections" - especially the "Government Sponsored" burials (aka "Pauper's Burials"). The likelihood is those graves never had more than a simple wooden cross with a name on it, long, long rotted away before renewal of that area. Contact them directly on [email protected] - don't expect a quick answer as they are always short staffed at the Admin office.

I've noticed many cemeteries (United Kingdom and especially those in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) now charge for ANY this information including the plot location, as they have been sold to private companies. Now the shareholders want their return on investment, so it is run as a profit centre. Yes, like you Torquay Cemetery in Devon, England, at £35 a request.

Remember if you are lucky to get any archived photographs, please put them up on the Find-a-Grave website for others in the future. Even their records often show "(It is) NOT recorded if a memorial was on this grave prior to renewal" is a good indication that a Bobcat (bulldozer) got there first. "Gosh, who'd require a photo of some old, broken, grave site?"
Alas, for those gravestones, "The horse has bolted—the gate is now closed".

The Karrakatta Cemetery Board also feels that these "renewed areas" should be covered with verdant, lush grass (instead of the original dry soil since its inception in 1899) and have now installed hundreds of sprinklers connected to the limited Perth coastal ground water. In one of the driest cities on Earth! This is absolutely ridiculous. We now have some of the best watered gravestones on the planet.

I have been informed by the West Australian State Government of the following: "This water licence authorises the use of 342,800 kilolitres per annum for the irrigation of 40 hectares of lawns and gardens at Karrakatta Cemetery."
That's nearly half the total area cemetery that can be legally watered (it's about 92 hectares in total) for grass to grow. It's use of bore water stains everything a nice rusty red colour. Apparently it "enhances" the gravestones patina?

"Rest in Peace" goes the saying - but not at Karrakatta cemetery. If you don't pay for the plot's lease every 25 years, you can find your headstone removed by an Act of State Parliament, even if you originally purchased the plot "for perpetuity" some 50 years earlier, when "perpetuity" actually meant "forever". Their dictionary definition has been crossed out under word PERPETUITY to now read: "Temporary use of something - preferably about 25 years". Let's move some goal posts.

At the Karrakatta's main entrance, in their "Waiting House", they have installed a series of huge signs bestowing that Karrakatta Cemetery is (and I quote): "The Guardian of over a century of Western Australia's social and cultural history," "Preserving Memories. Celebrating lives" and "A memorial is an enduring tribute to a person who has died". Their actions don't match their words. A shame, a great example of that modern marketing marvel called "buzz words".

An "Enduring Tribute" (to use their own marketing term) is of course, just 25 years. Silly of us to think otherwise isn't it?

Currently Find-a-Grave website is showing that Karrakatta Cemetery has less than 250 outstanding requests (with 380 now in the "too hard basket" - missing death dates for a common name like "Fred Smith"). Maybe one day I or someone else ("Thanks, Rich" for in 2024 finding many of these) will try and work those out which are possible with a bit of cross-referencing. Of course some may never be worked out if they don't appear on the Cemetery website and/or have Death Notices in old newspapers. As if they never existed.

The ones which are mentioned as "Ashes scattered to the winds at the cemetery" or "Ashes taken by Administrator/Funeral Director" will be a "bit hard" to find (i.e. - impossible). So many people click "Please take a photograph for me" to these. We'd all love to help.... but.......

I'll do my best by doing a "section/area/blocks" one at a time as this cemetery is actually Perth's largest, rather than doing them "Hodge Podge" manner - back and forth - over the 92 hectares of cemetery land. Remember that some grave location sections are so small that they don't even show up on the Cemetery's own printed maps or due to unusual numbering/section layout patterns where some grave numbers are completely missing or continue at much higher number on the very next row. After 3 years going up there, I am still discovering new sections (albeit very small ones).
Oh, and please tell me if..... "You mucked that up - it's the wrong photograph". Let me know so that I can re-photograph it again for you. Sometimes there are losses whilst uploading photographs and it will only display a "?" instead of a photograph.

••••CREMATORIUM ROSE GARDEN MEMORIALS••••:— Uggggh. Perhaps the worse of the Metropolitan Cemetery Board's ideas was to develop a series of Rose Gardens near their crematoria. These are say 15 metres long by 3 metres wide. The shape will vary from rectangles to sweeping, organic curves. Some are gardens which have roses in them. Others are just rose gardens. Yes, it is confusing.
One section as signage which says "LAWN Section 5A (B, C, etc.)" when ALL the memorials are actually in garden beds - not in the lawn at all.

In many cases they don't bother number the rose bed (or hide the bed number up one end, behind a shrub). To add to the chaos, they do not number ANY of the memorials contained WITHIN those Cremation Rose Gardens as since between 1943-2023, when they numbered them by "lease" number. They are NOT sequentially numbered (1, 2, 3, 4.... - more likely to be in an undocumented order like 235, 43, 135, 5, 191). So it's "look at EVERY memorial and hope you can spot the similar sized type face on a small piece of aluminum at a distance 3 metres".

80 years of total chaos in laying out of cremation memorials. Thankfully, in a first for Karrakatta, is one new section where they have actually started there numbering them sequentially - hurray. However, for the pre-2023 memorials, it's all "dead reckoning" to find these. A cremation garden bed can have up to 300 memorials in them.

One section starts the alphabet at "C" and works up from there. I finally found section A and B where just recently - 100 metres away, next to the rose gardens numbered 4a, 4b, 4c. Of course that makes sense. Right next to bed 20.

Anyway it's a VERY keen eye and (lots of) good luck they are even spotted in that sea of over 300 stainless steel memorials (all about 75mm square - approx 3" square in size). Don't forget to cover them with years of bore water stains to help in that finding process. It took me nearly 14 hours to do the 250 outstanding requests in 2023.

As I have spent countless (sometimes absolutely fruitless) circuits around the same rose garden bed looking for a single memorial (and after 25 years, that memorial COULD HAVE BEEN removed by family request or cemetery leases expired, covered with leaves in a damp corner or just overlooked. Worse still is when the stainless steel plaque has fallen off, due to the glue failing and the gardeners just rake them up with the pile of autumn leaves. I can't find anything to help when that happens - so many missing and loose plaques are found in the gardens). If I find one of these and can locate it's real location, I'll wedge them between two plinths (if they are close enough) and hope some kind person one day re-glues them.

If the cremation memorial is found, the information is •••VERY MINIMAL•••. For Example:
"In Memory of
Fred Nerks
1897-1972
A Good Chap"

It is a VERY rare thing to get any more information as there just isn't room on those small plaques to put much more.

Memorial cremation walls (other than the original 1940-1960's) do have larger memorials on the actual walls around the crematoria) but there's some unusual layout pattern (left-right or is it up and down?). Again there's no row numbering or any hints if the memorial even exists after 25 years and has since been removed by the Cemetery or family request.

Please Karrakatta Cemetery Board, could you put just the starting point for each row on those cremation memorial walls? Maybe 001— and 020 — sort of general numbering would be a great help to the thousands of visitors. Most of the cemetery is a multi-acre game of "Hide and Seek" which I think the Cemetery Board is currently winning.

I know it's confusing. Folk regularly come up to me (as I must look like I "might know") and ask, "Where am I?" or "How do I find the exit?". Or recently by a stone mason with a huge truck, "Where is section COBE?" (Me) "Oh, on the official map at the gate you currently looking at, that's still got the old name of " Congregational-BE" - right there....(points).
Yes, a cemetery completely designed by a committee and not by a planner. Many an older person in their car as the sun is starting to set, has wound down their car window to ask: "How do I get out of here? I don't really wish to spend the night here".

They could spray paint on the kerbing "EXIT" with an arrow. Nope. Heck, they COULD (but don't) stencil the name of that section on the kerbing on each side of the section block - there's an idea and it's not expensive. A few stencils, a few bright colours of spray paint. Job done and easily REDONE when required.

I'm delighted to help you and will often clean the site of fallen twigs etc. before taking a picture for you. I'll try not to shadow the resulting image and in the event of "no visible grave" will take one near as I can to it's original position - so that's NOT a mistake that you might see perhaps "Fred Nerks's headstone" and not "Great Auntie Myrtle's".

Good luck with your research.

Quentin
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
March 2024

I have been doing my family tree for over 29 years now, locally here in Perth, Western Australia, in several other Australian states, United Kingdom and Norway. I can guarantee "Zero Emissions" when getting your photographs at Karrakatta Cemetery - I walk there!

You help me in by getting me out of the house and having a great reason for a long walk to Karrakatta Cemetery. I help YOU by taking a photograph or two - plus I get some exercise. That's the deal we strike here. I'll do the "walk" to Karrakatta Cemetery from April through November as after that it's a bit too hot (say 40˚C or over 102˚F) here in Perth in summer and a good deal of autumn too.

____________________________________________

**** THIS SECTION IS **ONLY** FOR THE 0.5% OF FIND-A-GRAVE MANAGERS WHO ARE HERE TO SEE WHO I AM. THE ONES WHO REFUSE TO USE THE FORMATS USED BY THE MAJORITY AT KARRAKATTA CEMETERY - THAT FIELD BEING PLOT LOCATION AND FORMATS ****
For all other users - you can skip this bit or read how to use the FIND routines in Find-a-Grave website to find multiple burials in the one grave. Presuming they are all in the same Plot Location Format. Maybe you'll relate to what written abuse (more than just a refusal) I've had from some very "unusual" managers of some memorials. I've filtered most of it so you don't need to cringe. If you are a manager who's received one of these "well over the top" comments fired back at you, you are not alone. Some people refuse to see logic, common sense and lack the empathy to help others in the Find-a-Grave Community. After all, the foot soldiers here are all volunteers. Nothing takes the wind out of a new volunteers sails like some "managers" comments.

BACKGROUND OF GRAVE NUMBERING FORMATS USED AT KARRAKATTA:
Who invented the formats like Wesleyan-FA-0245? Why none other than Karrakatta Cemetery themselves - the PRIMARY SOURCE. This same data was imported into Find-a-Grave website some years ago. So the majority follow the correct format. That's over 98% of all 295,000 burial plots held on Karrakatta Find-a-Grave website following the majority used format. I have no control over that so please don't bother to send your emails about which say something about "My personal pet format".

REASONS WHY DATABASES USE STANDARD FORMATS
Let's give you some reasons. If you read the entire thing and still think you custom format is "the one", then talk to Find-a-Grave Support to get ALL the graves standardised to YOUR preferred format. Don't rant to me about it as I'm not listening as I don't have the ability to change the 290,000 of the 300,000 which are correct.
Yes, to use a different format is actually not helping anyone when they do a search. Look at the records. Really, look at them. Out of 100 graves, you might find 1 or 2 which are in a different format to what is suggested to you. It's probably not in your preferred format but I kindly asked a change, "Could you please change that Plot Location description". Sorry to hear that you are offended enough to write a volunteer a rude reply.
Please, read the description below and then just correct it to the one the majority used at Karrakatta Cemetery and move on with your life.

For a sub-set of the 0.5%'ers, apparently the Lizard People have taken over Karrakatta Cemetery Records as well as the Find-a-Grave website and are planning to take over the plot they manage. It's ONLY a Plot Number. It's better that it's consistent with the majority of records.
Having a SEARCHABLE, consistent format is the way to help everyone. That's the end game here - SEARCHABLE.

CHECK YOUR FORMAT
Don't believe your one isn't the most dominate one in Karrakatta Cemetery? Check the five graves EITHER SIDE of your managed grave memorial.
Don't know how to do this in Find-a-Grave? They do have a very good HELP menu. You can do all sorts of things other than to type a known name. What about the other burials in the same grave you didn't know about. A different surname of a buried married sister perhaps. You will find them if the PRIMARY DATA is correct - which it is, 98% of the time.
Try it now. It takes about 1 minute to do a search over 10 graves.
Did you notice something? How many did your format found?
Now try the suggested majority format on the exact same 10 graves.

REAL WORLD EXAMPLE WHY AT KARRAKATTA ONE FORMAT DOMINATES 98%
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE.
Here's a real world example of a what a "manager" who refused the suggested plot format vs their preferred Plot Location format. This is from 1st May 2024) and is a great example as it shows everything which can go wrong.
REAL EXAMPLE:— Their preferred and somewhat verbose format: "Wesleyan Area, Section DA, Grave" vs "Wesleyan DA" (which is concise) format which was suggested as a change.
RESULTS
Using their format - 2 burials in the entire Section their burial was in.
Using the suggested format - 1,194 burials in that same Section.

ONE EXTRA BONUS WHEN THE POPULAR FORMAT WAS USED
Their format they knew of ONE burial - as there was a headstone WITHOUT all the burials inscribed. I was in possession of a complete burial list for this section - I found an ADDITIONAL 2 burials - in the same grave. Sure I didn't find theirs - but the headstone said that name anyway. Their format found only 33% of the total number of burials in that one grave.

SUMMARY - THE OVERALL WINNER
Their preferred format - 2 burials.
The suggested format - 1,194 burials.
That's a 600:1 ratio.
You are 600% more likely to discover extra burials if the Plot Location was used - I've seen this from Section to Section at Karrakatta Cemetery as well. Their format was 0.17% used by the other burials in that section. Yet I got a very rude email saying that it was myself "peddling a pet personal format." I'll always tend to err to the side of the majority. 99.83% in that particular section.

No "if's or but's". The evidence speaks for itself. No. It's not "my preferred format" - I never invented it verse one which is fails to show success during a SEARCH.

For a less active user of Find-a-Grave website, they may have thought they were being correct at the time they manually created their new grave memorial. They just ACCEPT the change, happy there's now photographs of their managed grave for the first time.

Others might even know the name of the person(s) buried in that plot - even when there's no or an incomplete list on the memorial stone. They could have created the Find-a-Grave Memorial using the formats they knew from their own local cemetery in another state or country.

That's when I will then request a change I use the MOST COMMONLY USED FORMAT used at Karrakatta Cemetery on Find-a-Grave. Only those ones that "search" well. It's a suggestion, not a call to arms as some "managers" seem to think.

I am happy to say that out of 50 Plot location suggestions, 95% will accept the change. 4.5% just don't read their email, however, 0.5% feel it's a conspiracy and a cheek someone should ask for a Plot Location format to be altered. I know, I've read your venom filled emails. Talk about over-reacting to a polite request.

WHY YOU SHOULD DO IT NOW?
There are at least 16 ENTIRE sections to be bulldozed by Karrakatta Cemetery in the next 1 to 5 years.
Let that sink in for a moment.
ENTIRE. SECTION. BULLDOZED.
Loss of all the surface memorials to the un-financial, non-famous graves those not a Commonwealth War Grave.
GONE FOREVER.
These are to be replaced with new burials between the (few) historical ones, made from nice straight lines of concrete, with new uniform sized, marble and granite headstones which will NOT be stating your relatives name just 1 metre beside them. Forgotten. Except on Find-a-Grave website and any archives of Karrakatta Cemetery records.

I've been working for 4 months trying to get at least one LAST photograph in each of the Anglican and Wesleyan sections before they gone for good. Once the bulldozers have done their work, with the last semi-trailer carting the headstones away to the local tip in any one of the 16 sections earmarked after permanent "renewal".

OTHER NOTES
a) The majority formats used at Karrakatta Cemetery (over 98% are following the same format - I'm not correcting a comma or a space when there should be say, a hyphen, as ALL still are searchable without issues). So four choices - other than a custom one.

b) Words such as "Grave", "Area" and "Section" are already IMPLIED.
Does a policeman checking your drivers licence write it in his notebook as "ADDRESS: 123 Smith Street, SUBURB: Big Town, STATE: West of Nowhere - likewise, including the words SECTION, AREA and PLOT are all implied and are not used in Karrakatta Cemetery records (over 98% of the time).

Using a custom "Plot Location description" WILL SKEW a search for both yourself and others. Especially if each manager uses their personal format.

Find-a-Grave website is really (shock) a DATABASE under a webpage.

Your refusal is certainly not improving the experience of others. Many of whom haven't even started their family history journey. Help others. They helped you making Find-a-Grave what it is today - over 98% correct (at least at Karrakatta).

IF YOU STILL LIKE YOUR PERSONAL FORMAT
Knock yourselves out BUT put your custom format where it belongs - in the "Grave Info" field where it will cause not skew a SEARCH.

FORMATS THAT DO WORK DURING A PLOT LOCATION SEARCH (and there's even MORE that will work, I've just put in 4 very common ones).
Examples of working and searchable formats. Yes they are concise too:

1) Wesleyan FC-0654

2) Wesleyan-FC-0654

3) Wesleyan, FC, 0654

4) Wesleyan FC 0654

**** END OF COMMON SENSE AND BACK TO SOME FUN ****
____________________________________________________________

If you want me to fill a request from a grave that I have already taken a snap for (i.e. - multiple burials in the one grave), I can help if you can't work that magic in Find-a-Grave. If you can "self service", then you have my permission to copy those photos. I'm not THAT sort of a copyright fiend. For the firms who are making rival websites - "You DO NOT have my permission to slurp my photographs - is that clear?"

If you DO wish for me to do that, could I ask you to give me the Find-a-Grave Memorial ID's, first names (including middle name) and Surname, Grave Number for all the parties involved as it REALLY DOES save me a lot of time trying to find them by name as often I'll need to double check against the Metropolitan Cemetery Board Website.

Karrakatta Cemetery Board has been "renewed" 43 sections already and another 32 "soon to be renewed" as a part of the Cemetery Boards "master plan." Once they have completed this, finding an original old grave to photograph will be nigh impossible in those "renewed" areas. After they complete this, any grave headstone in Karrakatta cemetery which pre-1980's and not lucky enough to be in a "Historical Area" will probably get the answer of, "Sorry, you are too late".

As the Find-a-Grave website DOESN'T mention with the grave location(s) are now in a "renewed section", a seemingly valid request to get a photograph from the volunteer photographic foot-soldiers might be answered with a, "Sorry, but this area was renewed". I'll try to add the new headstone location if it was moved if it is mentioned so on the Cemeteries own "notes". These, I have found, can be wrong. Locations being incorrect or as is happening too frequently, their fixing processes so bad, they literally fall off the wall and a) Break or b) Get absolutely ruined by staff drilling multiple holes to screw the headstone back to the wall c) Just are nowhere to be seen (or perhaps removed by family request). Between WWI and WWII the records at Karrakatta are somewhat questionable in quality of entry or subsequent transcription into their computer records. Errors in and actual burials are missing (name and date of burial mentioned - but missing is the grave number). The actual headstone can be the only indicator to other burials. Then after checking newspaper archives for Death and Funeral notices to confirm the burial took place at Karrakatta, then I'll add this into Find-a-Grave.

If your request is in a "renewed" area of Karrakatta Cemetery from that moment on it reminds me of the Marx Brother's "Tutti Fruiti Ice Cream" routine from "Day at the Races" (you can look it up on YouTube, very funny) - but it involves lots of cross referencing books and plans which may or may not be up at the Cemetery in their "Book of Remembrance" cabinets in these renewed sections. Maybe the possums steal them at night? Or perhaps those thieving magpies or the rascally ravens?

Is the headstone now hidden under the shrubs in that "Garden Bed"? Many small garden beds don't even have a markings to identify them or shown on official cemetery maps as there could be any of 20 or 30 "gardens" in a section - with about half actually marked. Those that are seem to be numbered counter-clockwise at the back and then oddly numbered is a seemly random manner throughout the rest of the section.
Is that Australian native shrub, covered with bees/thorns/certain decapitation in the way to get decent photograph of the headstone of Uncle Freddy's headstone? You review the photograph to read to the inscription, "Uncle Freddy - 1858-1926", hardly earth shaking details after 15 minutes since starting that particular search for a "renewed section". Now with torn clothing, cuts and stings, I cross off "Uncle Freddy" from my Find-a-Grave list.
See how easy it was to get your request filled! I've always got the cuts to prove it.

If someone's gravestone "looks unsafe", well, that's another reason that a headstone can just "disappear" - poof - and it's gone as if by magic! Pixies?

FOR RENEWED AREAS — ARCHIVED CEMETERY BOARD PHOTOGRAPHS MAY EXIST - Please follow the Metropolitan Cemetery Board Website links for their obtaining ARCHIVED photographs, as if it was the Cemetery who removed the headstone, then it's still (currently) a free service.
HOWEVER, there was a time for a number of years that the cemetery took NO PHOTOGRAPHS (1970-1980) or took no notice if there had ever been a memorial on the old grave headstone before "renewal" took place. There may have only taken ONE archive photograph - that being only the face side whilst missing any side inscriptions of other relatives buried there. Disappointment of some kind is almost certain for earlier "renewed sections" - especially the "Government Sponsored" burials (aka "Pauper's Burials"). The likelihood is those graves never had more than a simple wooden cross with a name on it, long, long rotted away before renewal of that area. Contact them directly on [email protected] - don't expect a quick answer as they are always short staffed at the Admin office.

I've noticed many cemeteries (United Kingdom and especially those in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) now charge for ANY this information including the plot location, as they have been sold to private companies. Now the shareholders want their return on investment, so it is run as a profit centre. Yes, like you Torquay Cemetery in Devon, England, at £35 a request.

Remember if you are lucky to get any archived photographs, please put them up on the Find-a-Grave website for others in the future. Even their records often show "(It is) NOT recorded if a memorial was on this grave prior to renewal" is a good indication that a Bobcat (bulldozer) got there first. "Gosh, who'd require a photo of some old, broken, grave site?"
Alas, for those gravestones, "The horse has bolted—the gate is now closed".

The Karrakatta Cemetery Board also feels that these "renewed areas" should be covered with verdant, lush grass (instead of the original dry soil since its inception in 1899) and have now installed hundreds of sprinklers connected to the limited Perth coastal ground water. In one of the driest cities on Earth! This is absolutely ridiculous. We now have some of the best watered gravestones on the planet.

I have been informed by the West Australian State Government of the following: "This water licence authorises the use of 342,800 kilolitres per annum for the irrigation of 40 hectares of lawns and gardens at Karrakatta Cemetery."
That's nearly half the total area cemetery that can be legally watered (it's about 92 hectares in total) for grass to grow. It's use of bore water stains everything a nice rusty red colour. Apparently it "enhances" the gravestones patina?

"Rest in Peace" goes the saying - but not at Karrakatta cemetery. If you don't pay for the plot's lease every 25 years, you can find your headstone removed by an Act of State Parliament, even if you originally purchased the plot "for perpetuity" some 50 years earlier, when "perpetuity" actually meant "forever". Their dictionary definition has been crossed out under word PERPETUITY to now read: "Temporary use of something - preferably about 25 years". Let's move some goal posts.

At the Karrakatta's main entrance, in their "Waiting House", they have installed a series of huge signs bestowing that Karrakatta Cemetery is (and I quote): "The Guardian of over a century of Western Australia's social and cultural history," "Preserving Memories. Celebrating lives" and "A memorial is an enduring tribute to a person who has died". Their actions don't match their words. A shame, a great example of that modern marketing marvel called "buzz words".

An "Enduring Tribute" (to use their own marketing term) is of course, just 25 years. Silly of us to think otherwise isn't it?

Currently Find-a-Grave website is showing that Karrakatta Cemetery has less than 250 outstanding requests (with 380 now in the "too hard basket" - missing death dates for a common name like "Fred Smith"). Maybe one day I or someone else ("Thanks, Rich" for in 2024 finding many of these) will try and work those out which are possible with a bit of cross-referencing. Of course some may never be worked out if they don't appear on the Cemetery website and/or have Death Notices in old newspapers. As if they never existed.

The ones which are mentioned as "Ashes scattered to the winds at the cemetery" or "Ashes taken by Administrator/Funeral Director" will be a "bit hard" to find (i.e. - impossible). So many people click "Please take a photograph for me" to these. We'd all love to help.... but.......

I'll do my best by doing a "section/area/blocks" one at a time as this cemetery is actually Perth's largest, rather than doing them "Hodge Podge" manner - back and forth - over the 92 hectares of cemetery land. Remember that some grave location sections are so small that they don't even show up on the Cemetery's own printed maps or due to unusual numbering/section layout patterns where some grave numbers are completely missing or continue at much higher number on the very next row. After 3 years going up there, I am still discovering new sections (albeit very small ones).
Oh, and please tell me if..... "You mucked that up - it's the wrong photograph". Let me know so that I can re-photograph it again for you. Sometimes there are losses whilst uploading photographs and it will only display a "?" instead of a photograph.

••••CREMATORIUM ROSE GARDEN MEMORIALS••••:— Uggggh. Perhaps the worse of the Metropolitan Cemetery Board's ideas was to develop a series of Rose Gardens near their crematoria. These are say 15 metres long by 3 metres wide. The shape will vary from rectangles to sweeping, organic curves. Some are gardens which have roses in them. Others are just rose gardens. Yes, it is confusing.
One section as signage which says "LAWN Section 5A (B, C, etc.)" when ALL the memorials are actually in garden beds - not in the lawn at all.

In many cases they don't bother number the rose bed (or hide the bed number up one end, behind a shrub). To add to the chaos, they do not number ANY of the memorials contained WITHIN those Cremation Rose Gardens as since between 1943-2023, when they numbered them by "lease" number. They are NOT sequentially numbered (1, 2, 3, 4.... - more likely to be in an undocumented order like 235, 43, 135, 5, 191). So it's "look at EVERY memorial and hope you can spot the similar sized type face on a small piece of aluminum at a distance 3 metres".

80 years of total chaos in laying out of cremation memorials. Thankfully, in a first for Karrakatta, is one new section where they have actually started there numbering them sequentially - hurray. However, for the pre-2023 memorials, it's all "dead reckoning" to find these. A cremation garden bed can have up to 300 memorials in them.

One section starts the alphabet at "C" and works up from there. I finally found section A and B where just recently - 100 metres away, next to the rose gardens numbered 4a, 4b, 4c. Of course that makes sense. Right next to bed 20.

Anyway it's a VERY keen eye and (lots of) good luck they are even spotted in that sea of over 300 stainless steel memorials (all about 75mm square - approx 3" square in size). Don't forget to cover them with years of bore water stains to help in that finding process. It took me nearly 14 hours to do the 250 outstanding requests in 2023.

As I have spent countless (sometimes absolutely fruitless) circuits around the same rose garden bed looking for a single memorial (and after 25 years, that memorial COULD HAVE BEEN removed by family request or cemetery leases expired, covered with leaves in a damp corner or just overlooked. Worse still is when the stainless steel plaque has fallen off, due to the glue failing and the gardeners just rake them up with the pile of autumn leaves. I can't find anything to help when that happens - so many missing and loose plaques are found in the gardens). If I find one of these and can locate it's real location, I'll wedge them between two plinths (if they are close enough) and hope some kind person one day re-glues them.

If the cremation memorial is found, the information is •••VERY MINIMAL•••. For Example:
"In Memory of
Fred Nerks
1897-1972
A Good Chap"

It is a VERY rare thing to get any more information as there just isn't room on those small plaques to put much more.

Memorial cremation walls (other than the original 1940-1960's) do have larger memorials on the actual walls around the crematoria) but there's some unusual layout pattern (left-right or is it up and down?). Again there's no row numbering or any hints if the memorial even exists after 25 years and has since been removed by the Cemetery or family request.

Please Karrakatta Cemetery Board, could you put just the starting point for each row on those cremation memorial walls? Maybe 001— and 020 — sort of general numbering would be a great help to the thousands of visitors. Most of the cemetery is a multi-acre game of "Hide and Seek" which I think the Cemetery Board is currently winning.

I know it's confusing. Folk regularly come up to me (as I must look like I "might know") and ask, "Where am I?" or "How do I find the exit?". Or recently by a stone mason with a huge truck, "Where is section COBE?" (Me) "Oh, on the official map at the gate you currently looking at, that's still got the old name of " Congregational-BE" - right there....(points).
Yes, a cemetery completely designed by a committee and not by a planner. Many an older person in their car as the sun is starting to set, has wound down their car window to ask: "How do I get out of here? I don't really wish to spend the night here".

They could spray paint on the kerbing "EXIT" with an arrow. Nope. Heck, they COULD (but don't) stencil the name of that section on the kerbing on each side of the section block - there's an idea and it's not expensive. A few stencils, a few bright colours of spray paint. Job done and easily REDONE when required.

I'm delighted to help you and will often clean the site of fallen twigs etc. before taking a picture for you. I'll try not to shadow the resulting image and in the event of "no visible grave" will take one near as I can to it's original position - so that's NOT a mistake that you might see perhaps "Fred Nerks's headstone" and not "Great Auntie Myrtle's".

Good luck with your research.

Quentin
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
March 2024