Mt Victoria Cemetery is behind the two churches on the left past the roundabout at Lake Rd and Albert Rd, Devonport. It is open 365 days a year from 6am to 8pm during daylight savings, and from 6am to 6pm during winter. As the cemetery is closed, interments can no longer be carried out.
History
The Crown reserved land for a cemetery when the area around Flagstaff Hill, now known as Mt Victoria, was sold for suburban farms in 1850. There were also interments at the Catholic, Presbyterian and Anglican churchyards on the slopes of Mt Victoria.
Mt Victoria Cemetery was closed in November 1890, but because O'Neill's Point Cemetery had not yet opened, interments still took place there, and in fact continued to at family plots, until the 1930s.
In May 1892 the Devonport Borough Council agreed with the then trustees of Mt Victoria Cemetery – a Mr Malcolm Niccol, J. Macky and Mr R. Mitchell - that the land should be permanently under the control of the borough council.
Interments of interest
The first interment at Mt Victoria Cemetery is of the great rangatira Eruera Maihi Patuone. He died in 1872 at the age of 109 and his grave is marked with a simple wrought iron railing and stone plaque. Patuone was a great warrior chieftain, but also acted as a peacemaker between the Maori people and the white colonists. Other members of the renowned family, who sold the land in the Devonport area, are also buried there.
Mr William Oliver, the first settler to buy land in what is now North Shore City, is also interred at Mt Victoria Cemetery. Unfortunately there is no record of where the interment actually took place, only a listing with his name and date of death.
Gladwyn John Wynyard, who was interred in 1938, is also of interest. He was born in Devonport and employed by the Devonport Steam Ferry Company, where he worked for 50 years. Mr Wynyard only left Devonport twice in his life, to go to Wellington, and died within 100m of where he was born in Calliope Rd, Devonport.
