The Convict Cemetery was established around 1846 and it's believed that the cemetery in Rose Lane saw approximately 320 burials.



This cemetery in regards to others in Launceston at the time, reflects a burial segregation policy that was adopted throughout Australia. The approximate thirty years the cemetery was in use were ‘late' into the history of transportation, and as such an anti-transportation movement had begun to grow in the free settler/freeborn population. Members of this population were reluctant to share established religious burial locations with convicts and those with a criminal history. As such, individuals were reportedly sometimes interred in plots with 5 or 6 others. Also, those who had earned their ticket of leave sometimes were still buried here because they would not be accepted into the consecrated, church cemeteries. In the lowest of circumstances, its reported that convicts were not permitted official funerals, often buried at night and in either a sack or other make-shift coffin.



The cemetery did once contained named headstones, and after its closure in 1874, it was maintained predominately by prison gangs and probationers. However, by the 1890's this ceased and the land begun to be used by grazing cattle. It's believed that it was around this time the Launceston Council ordered the headstones removed and the land ploughed. In its time since, the land has been used for brickworks and a reserve.



Little remains now of the hedged-off cemetery, signage on Westbury Road points to its existence and it is most easy accessed via Rose Lane. At the top of the steep hill that the cemetery is located there are marked entrance ways that cut into the hedge. Beyond there is just a low stone wall circle and a path lined with memorial tiles. The tiles have handwritten information about some of the individuals buried there, which the school children of Glen Dhu Primary were responsible for making. On the grass there is a row of concrete blocks with arrows marked onto, though no indication of what these refer to.