Just beneath a carved service hat and belt that is hanging off the sculpted branch of a tree stump is the epitaph of a young man who died in April 1915.

Further along the knoll stands a towering red granite cenotaph, a crucifix with an anchor lashed to it by intricately chiselled rope and, a wooden headboard carved by a ship’s carpenter for a beloved crewmate.

Beneath these intricately carved headstones are the remains of the sailors, settlers and pioneers of Albany as well as those who knew the land long before European ships arrived.

Albany Memorial Park’s 2.5ha plot is “topographically unusual” due to its bisection by Middleton Road — which contrary to popular belief, came before the cemetery — with its 5000-odd graves spread on either side of the road.

The division is a remnant of the cemetery’s early years, where burial plots where grouped according to religious denomination.

Presbyterian, Catholic and Methodist lots gradually expanded to border one another, and the rich, with their elaborate marble memorials were buried alongside the simple wooden markers of the poor.

When it was first constructed in 1840, citizens complained of its distant location far away from the CBD.

“There was always a natural track through here because that was the way to the beach which was considered way out of town,” Albany Cemetery Board chair Jan Biglin said.

“It was way on the outskirts and the closest dwelling would have been the farm, as the town was mostly located down at the bottom of York Street.

“The town just grew around it and when they they ran out of ground on one side, the top side I believe, they moved to the other side.”

Only about 1100 of the graves are marked with named memorials.

As individual church trustees held the records for their members, the names of most of those buried here, though likely recorded somewhere, may have been lost to time.

A data base collating these records is a work in progress by the Albany Regional Family History Society and Albany History Collection at the library.

Though not the oldest colonial burial place in the city — that title goes to the area behind the Albany Town Hall now covered by a carpark — it is considered the first consecrated one, having been blessed in 1848.

It is the now the only surviving cemetery of the original eight gazetted in WA to have not been significantly altered, with the glimpses of its heritage etched into its headstones.

Walking among them revealed many ancestors of prominent Albany families, including the Culls, Collies, Wellsteads, Egerton-Warburtons, Hassells, Moirs, Muirs and Spencers.

Some of the city’s better known historical figures were laid to rest here too.

Dr Alexander Collie, a famed surgeon, was exhumed from his resting place behind the hall next to his dear friend Mokare, and re-buried in the cemetery.

Henry Camfield, who named the area of Burswood before he was Albany’s resident magistrate, was interred there as was Reverend John Wollaston who is credited as establishing Anglicanism in WA.

For every prominent name, however, are those of people who lived ordinary lives — some marked by unfortunately tragic ends, often of a watery nature.

A master of the dredge Avon died while trying to board his vessel and succumbed to shock as he slipped into the harbour’s icy waters, a police inspector drowned while attempting to save his nephew who fell of the wharf, and a carpenter suffered the same fate when he tried to retrieve a pair of soggy pyjamas.

Many of the graves highlight the dangers of childhood in an era when accidents and illness quickly became fatal.

One child died when he was buried underneath a collapsed sand bank, another succumbed to ant stings, one died of “convulsions” and another died of accidental injury sustained while playing.

Ms Biglin, who herself has grandparents buried in the cemetery, said it was the wide range of stories held in the park that made it a significant place for many.

“It holds a lot of history,” she said.

“There’s a lot of original settlers who are all buried here and prominent people that went right through till the 1950s.

“Being central to the town, people can come and walk around and lots of tourists come through to visit.

“People love tradition. They love to visit their ancestors and it’s important that people be given the opportunity to be able to hold to their heritage.”

These days, the final resting place of Albany residents is Allambie Park Cemetery, which opened on August 4, 1954, five years prior to the closure of the old cemetery in 1959.

Despite initial complaints, it ended up being its proximity to the town that marked its end, as the city’s growth limited its ability for expansion.

The last person buried there was businessman Denis Robinson, whose family owned the Drew Robinson and Co department store on Stirling Terrace.

Upkeep of the old cemetery is undertaken by a dedicated trio of volunteers who weed, landscape and ensure the park remains a dignified place for the remains of some of Albany’s oldest.