Karori Cemetery
Karori Cemetery is New Zealand's second largest cemetery, located in the Wellington suburb of Karori. History. Karori Cemetery opened in 1891 to address overcrowding at Bolton Street Cemetery. In 1909, it received New Zealand's first crematorium, which is still in use and is Australasia's oldest. Karori Cemetery reached capacity during the 1950s, and Makara Cemetery became Wellington's main burial ground. Burials at Karori happen only in pre-purchased family plots, in children's plots, and in pre-purchased ash plots. The Karori Crematorium and Chapel are listed (Class I) with the New Zealand Historic  Places Trust. Description. The cemetery covers almost and has seen more than 83,000 burials. War graves. The cemetery contains separate World War I and World War II services sections. Buried here are 268 Commonwealth service personnel of World War I – including most deaths from the first New Zealand Expeditionary Force Reinforcement Camp and others at Trentham, and the Upper Hutt Remount Depot – and 123 of the World War II, besides a Norwegian and a French war casualty. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) also erected a plaque commemorating 15 New Zealand service personnel of World War II who were cremated  at Karori Crematorium and their ashes scattered. It is set into the Services Columbarium Wall in the Services section. In addition, the CWGC erected the Wellington Provincial Memorial, in the form of a marble arch connecting the two Services sections, inscribed with the names of service personnel from Wellington Province who died serving in the World Wars but have no known grave.