General News
25 July, 2022
Local cemetery find prompts push to map older areas
The Maryborough Cemetery Trust are hoping to map older areas of the cemetery for possible unmarked graves after human remains were uncovered during routine works last month. Cemetery staff had been removing a tree stump in an open section of the...
The Maryborough Cemetery Trust are hoping to map older areas of the cemetery for possible unmarked graves after human remains were uncovered during routine works last month.
Cemetery staff had been removing a tree stump in an open section of the cemetery when a number of bones were discovered, later confirmed to be human by local police detectives and Heritage Victoria.
The remains are not believed to be suspicious and are instead understood to be from an old cemetery grave which was no longer marked.
Maryborough Cemetery Trust chairman David Bilton said while it’s not uncommon for remains to be unearthed in older cemeteries, it was the first time to his knowledge it had occurred here.
“You do hear about this happening from time to time, particularly in older cemeteries, but to my memory this is the first time it’s happened here or at least the first time in 20 years,” he said.
“We were doing some tidying up at the cemetery grounds when we found the remains, they were at the base of a tree stump we were removing.
“It was in an area where we really thought there wouldn’t be anything, it was right out on its own and obviously we are very careful with not disturbing graves and that sort of thing.”
The discovery was reported to Victoria Police as well as Heritage Victoria, who confirmed the remains were not Indigenous nor suspicious and the cemetery trust reburied the remains.
“Heritage Victoria confirmed they weren’t Aboriginal remains and there was nothing significant about them, so we have reburied the remains where they were found,” Mr Bilton said.
“There’s a temporary marker in place now until we can get a plaque made up to signify where the remains are.
“That grave site will then be added to our list of known grave sites so this won’t happen again, we take things like this really seriously.”
The cemetery trust has records of grave sites and burials in the cemetery going back decades and while newer areas of the cemetery are well documented, older portions are not.
Mr Bilton said he is hopeful that in the coming years, the trust will be able to secure funding to do mapping work in a bid to highlight other possible unmarked graves.
“We know the exact locations of graves in the lawn sections because they are mapped and recorded,” he said.
“We know a lot of the monumental sections fairly well, I would say we’re 99 percent on where the graves are there.
“The area these remains were found in though is an open area that is independent of all the other denominations, which is how cemeteries used to be made up.
“We are hopeful that in the next couple of years we can get some funding to do some geophysical mapping of that area to learn whether there are other graves there.”
Mr Bilton said the cemetery trust are proud of the cemetery and are continuing their efforts to improve and maintain facilities.
“We’ve had a lot of positive feedback for the cemetery over the years and we do take a lot of pride in it,” he said.
“Although it’s not a place you really like people to go so to speak, when people go there they like it to be attractive and well kept.
“We’ve got to be thinking 10 years ahead for the cemetery in terms of expansion and we don’t know what’s going to happen, whether there’s going to be more cremations or burials, so it’s something that we’re always working away at.”