Our cemeteries

Porirua City manages three public cemeteries: Whenua Tapu, Porirua, and Pāuatahanui Burial Ground, and a number of historic cemeteries.

Porirua City’s three public cemeteries offer restful locations to reflect and remember, as well as giving insights into the area’s history and early days of settlement.

Contact us

For enquiries about our cemeteries or the crematorium, please phone the cemetery office on (04) 239 9078 during business hours. You can also search our cemetery records online.

Our cemeteries are open from 7.30 am to dusk every day.

Visiting a cemetery

Whenua Tapu

The main cemetery and crematorium at Whenua Tapu between Plimmerton and Pukerua Bay has a peaceful native bush setting and offers various options for burials and cremations.

Porirua Cemetery

Many of the 4,000 graves in Porirua Cemetery are unmarked and more than 2,000 are the resting place of patients of the former Porirua mental hospital. 

Pāuatahanui Burial Ground

Pāuatahanui Burial Ground dates back to the 1850s and many members of the district’s pioneer families are buried there. 

Historic cemeteries

Porirua City has several other historic cemeteries. Details for these sites are available on microfiche at Porirua Library's Genealogy Resources:

Pāuatahanui

  • Battle Hill 1846–1883 
  • Pāuatahanui Public Burial Ground 1850–1969 (see list of inscriptions)
  • St Albans Anglican Church 1930–1979 
  • St Josephs Catholic Church 1885–1978 (See layout plan, and list of burials)

Plimmerton 

  • Honoeke Māori 1940-1979
  • Māori November 1918 

Pukerua Bay 

  • Māori November 1921 

Porirua

  • Porirua Cemetery 1895–1980 
  • Takapu Māori 1858–1976 

Get in touch:

+64 4 237 5089

enquiries@poriruacity.govt.nz

© 2017
Porirua City Council