West Terrace Cemetery, Historic cemetery in Adelaide, Australia

West Terrace Cemetery is a 27.6-hectare burial ground in Park 23 of the Adelaide Park Lands, bounded by West Terrace, Anzac Highway, Sir Donald Bradman Drive and the Seaford and Belair railway lines. It is divided into many rectangular blocks separated by narrow pale paths, densely filled with small upright grey and white headstones in long even rows. Rounded or circular planted islands of dark green trees and shrubs stand at several block corners and path junctions, and a broad curving drive loops through the right-hand portion, enclosing a rounded section.

The cemetery was included in Colonel William Light's plan for Adelaide in 1837, and the first official burial took place around 1840. Over the following decades, a chapel, a crematorium opened in 1903, and separate religious sections were added, until management passed to the Adelaide Cemeteries Authority in 2002.

The cemetery's sections reflect the faith communities that buried their dead here: a Jewish section was created in 1843 at the request of a Mr Montefiore, a Catholic section followed in 1845 after Bishop Francis Murphy's arrival, the Church of England received its own ground in 1849 and the Quakers in 1855. Afghan (Muslim) and Druze areas were set aside in 1896 and 1928. The Smyth Chapel, designed by E. J. Woods and built in 1871, stands in the Catholic area.

The cemetery is open every day and can be explored on your own or with a guided tour, which covers stories about notable figures and the site's history. Comfortable shoes are a good idea, as the paths are long and some sections have uneven ground.

South Australia's first crematorium was built on the grounds in 1903 and operated until 1959, during which time nearly 5,000 people were cremated there. The cemetery also holds a grave connected to the famous unsolved death case of 1948 known as the Somerton Man.