Sydney's Most Haunted Cemetery: The Truth Behind Castlereagh's Dark Past 

I’m a Penrith local. And the lore behind this location is “Sarah’s grave” - visited it multiple times over the years . Seen a lot of paranormal stuff there aswell

Great to see another Australian who is passionate about the spiritual realm. I am in South Sydney also researching the Paranormal. The Earth bound spirits need help even after 100 years. Keep up the great work.

8:27 8:27 Mate it was 1788 And it was Governor Philip Macquarie came in 1804 after Governor King one that is most haunted is Australia's oldest cemetery St John's Parramatta full of first fleeters and convicts alike St John's has Henry Dodd 1790 and others in the late 1700's you will not find that anywhere else in Australia another early 1800's us the Pearce family graves next to the M7 on Seven Hills road just up the old Windsor road from the 1790 Toongabbie the third settlement

At 13:03 is the gravestone of my husbands 4th great Grandfather Charles Hadley. He was the man who built Hadley House in 1811-1812, the house still stands and is now heritage listed. Thank you! i was very excited to see it in your video!

I was born in Manly N.S.W & we moved around a bit, we ended up living in Belrose & at the other end of the street we lived in was the Cemetery. Being kids we would go to the cemetery just to look at the headstones & try to find the oldest person & the youngest person there. It was also filled with mausoleum & on the weekends you would see the families of the deceased people in mausoleum’s having picnics with them & playing music, it felt creepy to us as we were kids & didn’t understand why they were doing that. It’s wonderful to be able to wander around an old cemetery just to read the headstones & what they were like. Thank you for sharing your story I really enjoyed it ❤❤❤

I used to go here when I was 14 years old. I can't believe her story has carried on. RIP Sarah.

I think it's a real shame that no one has taken better care of this grave yard and clean up. With so many people doing family trees now. Thanks

I love graveyards so much history. Always respect them never damage ❤ pick up rubbish as i am going around reading headstones

Nice to see an Australian based youtuber. Would love more haunted site videos. I hear the rocks in the city has a haunted history.😊

Very historic cemetery. It seems to have a rather chaotic layout but it is respected in the locality. Thanks for taking us there.

Keep up your history and haunted location's please 🙏 really enjoyed this one ❤

Great invtigation Stevo.. really enjoyed it. Greetings from the Sunshine Coast Queensland Australia 🇦🇺

I always think anyone entering a cemetery is a brave person. I prefer not to and will avoid a grave whenever I respectively can. Always had a fear and respect of the dead for as long ss I can remember and yet i am aware they will not harm us. I think it is the quiet and isolation of cemeteries or graveyards that adds to the mystic or fear of them.

This video popped up when watching this morning. I subscribed straight away. I absolutely love your honest, raw and easy approach to telling a story. I also love history and graveyards..Keep up the great work and I look forward to more content while your channel grows. Best of luck mate.

I live close by and found this very interesting. Keep them coming and have a great day.

Loved it,i can tell your a funny guy don't overthink things just be yourself,my son has a channel so i know how your feeling at the moment but you will do fine,us Aussies are craving a good home grown history mixed with a little spooky channel, isn't it crazy that i am being followed feeling when you walk a cemetery , just found you so i will catch up and i subscribed and have hit the like button and looking forward to more content.❤NSW🦘

I used to live in Liverpool, but now I'm down in the Shoalhaven... soooo many old Cemeteries down this way. I love old Cemeteries. I walk into each one with a peacefull heart and mind. I have great respect for every grave I pass. I take each and every grave as a history lesson. They can truly teach you so much.❤ Love your sense of humour.and character. Best of all luck in your future😊

I've always been fascinated with the paranormal. I thought about doing one in Sydney myself but glad to see more youtubers out there, thanks.

Lived in the area nearby all of my 60 year life and I never knew about this cemetery. Will have to visit.

Great to see the history of this land and shown across the world at what our land is like, awesome job and congratulations on the 1.47k of subs 🙏😁👌 keep up the great content 👍

Thank you for doing this. I enjoyed your periginations arround the place. Also the commentry. Please do more! I live in Cooma, NSW.

What a beautiful final resting spot - so peaceful. I would be interested to know what that steel rail was for, that you walked past at 2:20. Looked like it was a barrier, but couldn’t really see what for? Thanks for exploring this awesome location for us!

How absolutely fascinating! I grew up at Blacktown and I never knew there WAS a Cemetery there in Castlereagh! Very interesting about poor Sarah and the little baby! Such a long time ago! I'd love to visit but BEFORE sundown! Thank you.

I love walking through old cemeteries. I always stand at the foot of their burial site and read their names aloud. No one should be forgotten

I love cemetery tours. I’m in Newcastle so seeing things in Sydney is interesting. Just a hint for future tours, have a bit more info on things. I looked up Sarah Simpson & found info in less than 30 seconds. This could be the school teacher in me but, I enjoyed it , have subscribed & will watch more posts. Best of luck. 👍

Good stuff Jeff.

Subbed 👍 Old graveyards are interesting, would watch more of your narrations though where ever

I remember this cemetery when I was living in the area back in the early 90s. Back then I recall it was extremely overgrown by the bush, good to see it cleared up!

That was a good yarn mate! …and ‘yes’ I like this sort of content. Good luck with the channel 👍

GREAT VIDEO WITH INFO THANKS FOR SHARING

Nice vid! Always good to see an Aussie doing some of our home grown locations. Love haunted and abandoned or generally historical stuff. How Sarah didn't give too much stick 😅

G'day mate, new subscriber here,.. grow up in Sydney's outer west,.. love the area.. cheers. 😊

Came across this Channel and enjoy the History.

Really enjoyed listening to you ❤

Looks interesting 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

🤗 more South west Sydney paranormal videos whoop whoop… just found this video on my recommended. These are few good cemeteries out our way. Looking forward to your content

Great video mate!!

This is so interesting! Love hearing the historical side of things. I bet it would be quite creepy at night! Great video 😊

I just found your channel and subscribed im a fan :) i cant wait to see more haunted places !

Great work can't believe you went in there, this is still scary.

has been local legend since I was a kid too. have had some amazing and frightening experiences there over the years. Spooky spot and yet amazingly beautiful at the same time.

Great stuff mate!! Greetings from South Africa. Keep em coming!!!!!

Thanks Mate, great info.

Great vid mate, you should visit Windsor and Riverstone, lots of old graves there too

Can you do Ballarat cemetery at night i had a experience there

Love watching graveyards stuff! Hello J*****? Willy from Q*** here. I’m a subscriber now!

I visted Junee in NSW at a Manson called Monte Cristo and experienced paranormal activity there. The land lady who was a ghost heard my thoughts and perfume was released in the garden. It was her acknowleging my thoughts for showing her respect.

Nice video mate

Interesting content!! Really enjoyed the factual information more so than the haunted stuff!! All I hear about Sydney is Rookwood Cemetery!! And I'm thinking there's got to be more to it cause I'm planning to go over too Sydney one day too explore all the cemeteries over there!! So thankyou for this!!

I have just found your channel and liked your show... mate if when you're in a cemetery and you feel goose bumps remember the spot and go for a walk and shake it off then go back to the same spot and see if it happens again.... if it does well you make up your own mind. There is a spot in Melbourne north cemetery that triggers me every time, I feel cold and get the shivers. unfortunately its an unmarked grave.

First time in Sydney and my cousin took me out there at night to show me how freaky it is. He backed his car in so we could high tail it quickly if needed because of something that chases you out of there. Was pitch black but could see like an orb of light hovering over a grave but then seen something like a dark presence. Not sure if eyes were playing tricks but it came towards us so we jumped in car and got out of there. Never knew what cemetery we went to until now so cheers for the vid.

Very interesting I love old Cemeteries 🙏💖💐

This video is gold. Thank you for uploading and being so genuine. I did laugh so hard when you got spooked. No filter and so real. Love it and please keep it coming.

Thank you for this video, you've given me a new destination for my next day trip to Sydney 😀👍

Hi Stevo, I immediately recognized this cemetery as I live in Parramatta and have visited at night many times. It's a great place to take my dog for a walk as he's not dog-friendly and the place is dead (no pun intended hahaha!). I am respectful of the graves and make sure we stay on the path. I haven't heard any screaming from Sarah (or anyone else for that matter - That would scare the living S**T out of me!). But I'm curious to go back again & hopefully Sarah won't scare me to death!

Great channel I’m glad I found it 👌

Great to meet another Australian You tuber..great content.For paranormal lovers Old Queen Victoria Hospital @Blue Mountains will be interesting.Thanks for sharing

Good for you 👌🏻 🌼🙌🏻

I enjoyed this walk and talk 😊

Great vid, hope to see more haunted sites. The Rocks, I also visited the Street With No Name. That is a very haunted place.

It's a beautiful cemetary. The history wow.

Yeah I love this kind of stuff. Please do more of haunted vids. Im in Surry Hills and always hear about how haunted the rocks area is, you should definitively check it out. I suggest at night time though.

913 subs now! Good job! I would love to do some Haunted/paranormal locations videos myself one day but I don’t know where to start…. I am from 2-3 hours North of Sydney myself

Didn't think you could get to it anymore - new here, great vid

Very interesting! Nice to hear Australian accent- from Wollongong Gal😊❤

Hi . Ive just come across you. Ill give you a go. Thankyou for the history of some of Australia's past. I think you should give sarah some flowwrs to show her you ment no harm or dissrespect..

Very interesting content mate. Congrats. A couple of minor historical errors re date of First Fleet (1788) and first governor (Phillip) but that wasn’t the focus of this video. Keep it up.

Hello stevo I am possum and I am enjoying watching video i find cemeteries very interesting specially the ones that have graves from the early 1800s/1900 have a great day possum

Wrote the below before watching the video, was very chuffed to see the first head stone was my GGGG Grandmother, then you showed Strickland (another family name) and Eliza Field. I was meant to watch this video. I first this cemetery for the first time after discovering that it was the burial place of my 4x great grandparents, had no experience with this cemetery, had never heard any of it’s stories. It was late afternoon on a dull winter’s day when I parked in front, suddenly terrified, wanting so much to go in but I was a lone female and something felt foreboding. I had never been this frightened to enter any cemetery, I could only see two head stones framed between two trees when a male voice in my head told me I could enter but to only go as far as those two graves and no further. I was able to muster some bravery to enter the cemetery and to those graves, which just happened to be the graves I was looking for. Absolutely amazing. On a later date returned with my husband and children to see if there were more family graves, husband and son went one way while my daughter and I ventured to the left towards the back of the cemetery when I walked into a cold spot. It was a cold winter day, this was like walking from a cool room into a deep freeze, had never felt so cold. Took that as our sign to leave. I did go back as part of a ghost hunt but it was just after the fence and a locked gate was installed after a vandalism attack took place. My relatives grave were damaged during that. Have since sworn not to go there ghost hunting as I want to be welcome to visit my relatives grave.

I used to love exploring cemeteries as a teen as well. Great vid. I noticed towards the end you were in a great hurry to get out of there. Did something creep you out?

Yeah mate my partner and I love this sort of stuff. Ya doing a great job 👍👍

As a bit of research into another cemetery (in Queensland). Reading the burial records form the 1880's and 90's it was normal for very young babies not to be recorded with a (first) name, with the child listed as infant and their last name, i.e. Infant Smith.

North Head on the clifftop up the hill from Q Station. A lot of first fleeters died on the ship or shortly thereafter in quarantine. Makeshift graves were dug - the undertaker would throw lime on the body (to help it break down), wrap it in cloth, then race up the hill on a horse & cart for swift burial. These people never made it to their destination - their graves overlook the ocean past the heads from where they came. Burials were expensive so paupers were often buried by family in unmarked graves just outside the marked boundaries of cemeteries. Some were eventually marked, eg the back of St Stephens Newtown in the park. The creepiest place is always around the perimeter because you unknowingly walk on top but their spirit is there, when you feel that sudden cool breeze.

Interesting story more info about the other graves people stories would be interesting thank you 👍

My ancestors (Field) are in there, pretty cool finding intact graves of the very first of my family to arrive to Australia. Following a few generations in Castlereagh, the Field family were granted land in Hartley. They owned a few farms in Hartley and are burried at Hartley Vale Cemetary.

Well done 👍

What a lovely camping spot 👌

Your a brave man staysafe.dear.lvzzz from india

Just found your channel. I’m a “local” also. Really enjoy your content.

Gday Steve good work on the cemetery, can you do a segment on the jamisontown cemetery its small on lilac place jamisontown

ol Sarah's grave!! anyone that's out west knows about this did the exact same thing as you when i was 17-18 one of the boys just got their Ps and got to borrow the car and trying to find something to do or explore. Heard so many stories of things happening but nothing much happened to us but there was some sort of motion in there, we walked all the way to the back and the track split into 2 and instead of going any further we turned back and i was at the front and heard bushes moving and sticks snapping in front of us in the direction where we were walking it was the worst lol late at night pitch black still young and the rumour of the person next door coming out of the house with a shotgun if he heard any noises

First time seeing your channel.. grew up in Liverpool and walked thru the cemetery very often. Can i suggest you have a look at Grave Visitations from Ireland.. he does the same walk around style.

just subbed to your channel and so glad I see another Aussie RU-vidr as I'm a Aussie sheila lol. Awesome video!!

Just been for a walk around. What a beautiful old cemetery

Almost in my back yard and never knew this was there. I’ll have to visit one day.

Just found your channel and of course subscribed. Love your accent. I am Scottish . Great video. Good for the woman ghost lol

I dont quite know if this is the same place but we use to go to this old abondoned church at night somewhere in castlereigh back in the days and me n my friend remember clearly hearing footsteps right behind us but as we turned around there was noone there..

What a neat place. I find cemeteries to be so very interesting. Not creepy in the least. Sad, perhaps, as some were so very young when they died. Very old cemeteries that have been closed to burials, have a rambling appearance, less well kept, but all cemeteries are like quiet parks. Walking through one at night would be a bit disconcerting, but only because of living idiots up to no good… 🇨🇦

Really enjoyed it, but a couple of points which I will get to later on. I have an ancestor buried there (a third fleet convict) in 1820 (although his headstone and foot stone are marked 1821) so you can see that the earliest burials are well before your quote of about 1840. The tomb you describe as concrete is in fact a stone tomb of Reverend Fulton who performed most of the earliest burials there. Nice to see it has been cleaned up, it is usually covered in graffiti. I haven't been there since 2016(?). I think the mowing might be done by staff from Rookwood who have responsibility for the place (it is National Trust classified, as you say, one of the earliest cemeteries in Australia). Went there many times between the mid 1990s and 2016, never got hassled by spooks called Simpson, but she probably knew I would say "cut the crap, I don't believe in ghosts"🤣. I'm surprised you did not show one of the more amusing headstones with a truly good name. A female 1st Fleet convict with the surname Rope married a marine with the name Pulley. They must have had a sense of humour as they hyphenated the names. The family was Rope-Pulley. I'm not joking, look for the headstones next time you are there. There are many graves there that are not marked, in fact with the possible exception of the pathways you may well be walking on graves over most of the cemetery. I was told this by some guys from Rookwood as they were there quoting to repair my ancestor's headstone, which like many there had been vandalised back in the past. I don't find the place creepy at all. After dark might be another matter, I was told that people do climb the fence and hold vigil after dark around Simpson's grave. Rather them than me. I do find the place peaceful and rather tranquil during the day, rather pleasant. Two final points, there are no underground crypts there, that metal fence surrounds a very badly vandalised grave. Simply put some people are arseholes. The First Fleet left England in 1786, arriving in Australia in 1788, but I suspect you know that. If you are interested in the place I do believe some libraries, such as Sydney, may hold copies of Rev Fulton's burial book, which lists many of the graves there. Really enjoyed it, thanks very much

Nice Job - good luck with channel - subscribed yes.

Ghosts haunt where they died not where they are buried.

Just moved out west, going to go for a motorbike ride one day and check it out! You should check out the gore hill cemetery at st leonards...that one is creepy as... i went at night time. The fact that its connected to the hospital really adds to the effect.

Glad to see a video of the Penrith area! I grew up in Faulconbridge and Silverdale, and know the area well. As a teenager, wed drive to Penrith, and then to Castlereagh cemetery when it was dark to go drinking ( we were underage, so didn't want to get caught). The guys loved scaring the crap out of us girls, and a few times they'd take off, leaving us to walk all the way back to The Red Cow Hotel cark park!

Sarah Simpson (Marshall) is my 5th great grandmother. It is said that John married her at graveside so she is without sin after death. I live in Newcastle, would love to go to Sydney to pay my respects to her one day.

If you looking for places outside of sydney try the old mental hospital at morrisett not much left there but very creepy still.

Not sure. Id have to try and find more info.

Me and my son went there as it was getting dark ,nothing happened ,then the security guard turned up to lock the gate,I asked him if he ever experienced anything around Sarah’s grave and he said no,I think it’s just a local legend

Have a look at Hartley Cemetary. Along the Gt Western just past the Lolly Bug

Its a beautiful place.

I live in the Fairfield LGA and have always wondered if any spots here are haunted. You wouldn't have any idea?