Symonds Street Cemetery, Historic cemetery in central Auckland, New Zealand

Symonds Street Cemetery is a historic cemetery and park in central Auckland, covering 5.8 hectares of deciduous forest on the western slope of Grafton Gully, at the corner of Symonds Street and Karangahape Road, and crossed by the Grafton Bridge. It is a Heritage New Zealand Category I historic place. The site contains thousands of graves: in the Anglican section, 2000 graves were found under 1200 headstones, and in the Catholic section, 2100 graves under 400 headstones.

The cemetery was established in 1842 and served as Auckland's main burial ground until 1886, when operations moved to the newer Waikumete Cemetery. This shift reflected the city's growth and the need for additional burial space.

The cemetery was originally divided into separate sections for Anglican, Catholic, Jewish, Presbyterian, and Wesleyan communities, reflecting the religious diversity of colonial Auckland. These different areas remain visible today, each with their own character and style of monuments.

The cemetery lies on the western slope of Grafton Gully at the corner of Symonds Street and Karangahape Road, and the Grafton Bridge crosses over it. Paths run downhill through the deciduous trees, so expect uneven ground and steep sections. Auckland Council maintains and administers the grounds, and security guards patrol at irregular intervals.

In the 1960s, construction of the Auckland Southern Motorway required relocating over 4100 bodies to memorial sites within the cemetery grounds. This large-scale removal permanently altered the cemetery's layout and remains a little-known chapter in its history.