[2] The Indigenous people who inhabited the Parramatta River and its headwaters consisted of a number of clans, hordes or families known generally as the Darug Nation.

The country was highly suitable as a place to live with its ample fresh water, prolific plant and animal life and temperate climate.

[2] While there seems to have been little conflict between the new settlers and the Indigenous inhabitants at this time in the Parramatta area (unlike Sydney Cove) the Barrumattagal clan were devastated by introduced European diseases, including the 1789 smallpox epidemic.

The change arose from the intention of Dean Coffey (himself a Franciscan) to honour his friend Father McCarthy of the Capuchin Order, which was founded in Italy in 1528.

[4][circular reference]The completed chapel provided the focus for a Chinese funeral cypress (Cupressus funebris)-lined avenue leading from Church Street.

In 1936 a lych gate within a brick and iron fence was constructed to denote the entrance from the Pennant Hills Road and Church Street intersection.

[2][3] As granted, St Patrick's Cemetery area was over 5 acres (2 hectares) in size, but has been slightly reduced and reshaped by subsequent modern road widening and reservations.

[2] The cemetery occupies a large, trapezoid-shaped site at the northern uphill corner of the Church Street and Pennant Hills Road intersection.

A third road, Castle Street, borders the north-eastern side of the cemetery, and modern three-storey home unit blocks adjoin the north-western boundary of the site.

The cemetery area is level, and features an intensive tree cover, including some surviving older tree plantings including a pair of Chinese funeral cypresses (Cupressus funebris) west of and flanking the entrance to the Mortuary Chapel and extensive plantings of spotted gums (Corymbia maculata) and brush box (Lophostemon confertus) dating from the 1950s.

The extensive tree cover creates a "green oasis" at the Church Street/Pennant Hills Road intersection, providing a visual respite from the otherwise intensively developed built environment adjacent to the site.

The orientation of the older graves varies considerably in this area, with fairly short and random rows, or clusters of monuments scattered across the cemetery.

Five other Parramatta priests are buried under the chapel floor: the Franciscan Dean Nicholas Coffey (died 1857) who built the third St Patrick's Church; Dean John Rigney, pioneer of the Illawarrra; Monsignor Thomas O'Reilly (died 1919), parish priest of Parramatta, and Monsignor Joseph McGovern, founder of the Catholic Historical Society.

The layout of the burial areas appears to have become more organised, with regular rows of east facing graves and headstones, some apparently laid out in relation to the access from Church Street.

Several of the earlier inscriptions also feature the inclusion of verses which record typical sentiments and beliefs of the era, or in some cases particular and elaborate detail concerning the deceased and/or circumstances of death.

The simpler headstone forms continue into the second half of the nineteenth century but are supplemented by some more elaborate profiles and designs which derive from the High Victorian and Gothic Revival architectural styles which were popular during the period.

Typical more elaborate mid to late nineteenth century forms are the larger pedestal, spire and obelisk memorials which occur in the cemetery.

In 1936 a low brick and iron panel fence was constructed across the southern end of the site (adjacent to the Church Street and Pennant Hills Road intersection) with a timber framed lych gate providing entry to the cemetery.

The cemetery has also been subject to several attempts at both improvement and restoration which have left indelible impressions on the site and partly altered the character of its surviving physical evidence.

The cemetery's fabric demonstrates an evolving approach to the planning and spatial organisation of the place as a burial ground, the development of funerary customs and tastes, and changing notions of appropriate landscape and architectural design.

The stylistically restrained Gothic-revival styled mortuary chapel is the focal point for a largely surviving formal entry layout, oriented towards Church Street, of considerable charm and distinction.

The cemetery offers evidence of associations with Catholic convicts and Irish rebels; with the Capuchin and Franciscan communities; with the wider Catholic community of the Parramatta region from the 1820s; with notable individuals, families and early institutions of the Parramatta district, as well as evidence of the multiculturalism of the early settlement in its recorded burials of German, Italian and Chinese nationals.

[2] St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 23 March 2012 having satisfied the following criteria.

[2] The cemetery is State significant for the 1844 sandstone mortuary chapel which is the oldest remaining in Australia and an important early example of Australian religious architecture.

The cemetery contains individual headstones of considerable aesthetic as well as historical interest and its formal landscape design is of a high calibre and rare quality.

[2] Prominently located at a key road junction, the cemetery provides visual interest, textural variety and a measure of tranquillity that contrasts with the forms of development and land use in the immediate area.

Both the extant structure of this formal layout (including the sandstone kerbing and layback on Church Street) and the surviving cypresses are significant elements, integral with the importance of the whole site.

The collective cemetery fabric is indicative and representative of the changing cultural preferences, beliefs, tastes, customs and styles of the Catholic community throughout this time.

St Patrick's Cemetery is of State significance for its research and archaeological potential: The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.

St Patrick's Cemetery is of State significance for its rarity as an early, formalised Catholic burial ground in NSW and for the rare quality of its formal landscape design.