O'Neill's Point Cemetery Bayswater

O’Neill’s Point Cemetery, Bayswater
By Celia Walker

Twenty One people stationed at the Narrow Neck military camp and nearby barracks lost their lives in the 1918 influenza pandemic, and most were interred at O’Neill’s Point Cemetery in Bayswater.

The Narrow Neck camp had a devastating 226 cases of influenza in October and November of that year, the sad death toll reflecting the camp occupancy of the time, predominantly young men from the Maori and Pacific Island Contingents that had fought in WWI, and their reinforcements. Many of the graves are marked by uniform rows of headstones, but these and other war casualties have not been forgotten in the intervening years, many of the military graves are still decorated with flags, flowers and other personalised mementoes.

From the changed perspective of another pandemic, these century-old deaths seem achingly present. The cemetery sprawls across an open slope, facing towards Shoal Bay and the inner Waitemata. Opened in 1891, it contains some Devonport notables amongst the graves – as with the Mt Victoria Cemetery there are many that are also remembered in street names in the area (Burgess and William Bond are two). For those who find wandering through a cemetery a bit morbid, the walkway and cycle track at its western edge leads down to the coastal route around Shoal Bay, and halfway down is an information panel about the cemetery as part of the World War One Heritage Trail.

Image Credits: Celia Walker