Lonely graves

Every time we have the opportunity we visit historic cemeteries and spend some time contemplating the people and its land.
My teenage daughter is rather fascinated by the short life span those days.
Always very interesting and always a good time to reflect at ones fortune and comfort we do enjoy nowadays.
JS.
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Hi bungarra,

this grave is on Lorna Glen (DEC station) east of Wiluna. The station manager told us it was only found last year, and only good luck saved it from being bulldozed when the air strip was extended to accommodate the RFDS.

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Lost to the Aboriginal family, he was a stockman in the area many moons ago. His grand daughter was working on the station and was understandably very happy to rediscover its whereabouts !

Evan

Hi Bungarra
Yes if only these grave could speak, they are so full of history. Many are in lonely place that are seldom seem by travellers.

Here are a couple that we have taken over the years.



Cheers


Stephen

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Good idea Bungarra. I dont have any individual graves for you but here are a couple of photos from the old mining area east of Chillagoe. The figures on the sign say a lot about the conditions under which the miners and their families lived.

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Cheers,

Val

here are a coupleImage Could Not Be FoundImage Could Not Be FoundImage Could Not Be Found
also not forgetting 4 legged friends
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Brian

There are a couple of books that have been printed on this subject, one called "Lonely Graves of Western Australia and Burials at Sea" and another one called "More Lonely Graves of Western Australia".

I saw the first one in a bookshop a few years ago, but if you do a search you should come up with them, from memory it contained details of location etc.

This isnt exactly a lonely grave as its part of the Davyhurst cemetary, but it gets me everytime I look at it. Been back a couple of times to contemplate what happened. Almost a 100 years later and you can still feel the parents pain.

Thanks for that post & it is for me interesting to see the many photos by everybody that has responded so far, There are certainly some lonely burial sites out there, and yes, if only we could listen to their stories.

Sadly out in the Central West of NSW in the midst of the wheat belt many lonely graves of pioneers were ploughed over back in the late fifties & early sixties. Farming equipment became bigger & covered the ground more quickly & family property's changed hands and thus family connection was lost & there was no regard for the sanctity of a humble grave site in the middle of nowhere. If it stood in the way of agriculture in those days it was just plouged under It was a shame & sad but it happened.

I'm not able to share with you photos of lonely grave sights as I do not know how to put them "up". It has already been said that it would be interesting to hear the story behind the circumstances of these sites.

Well, I know its not fact, but that great Australian Balladeer, Slim Dusty ( yes I'm a fan) put words to such a lonely grave site as mentioned in this thread. If you care to source & listen to the story he told of a young Lass by the name of "Clara Waters "who met her fate & was buried at such a lonely site at the tender age of 18. The story is on track #7 of a CD entitled "Coming Home", and whilst purely conjecture I guess, gives a good insight to the trials & hardships that these people faced. Cheers

You don't have to go out into the remote areas to find lonely or forgotten gravesites, in metropolitan Perth there is a little cemetary (about 5 headstones) attributed to victims of the Spanish Influenza epidemic - its located in the fenced off bush area near the Woodman Point recreation camp (which was originally built as a quarantine station for the flu epidemic).

It looks kinda creepy to go there and see all the old gothic-style headstones covered in bridal creeper and plant matter, in a forest. I think the local land care group have cleaned it up recently though.



Some more info here

Marble Bar has a wonderful wall with plaques that tell the story of many of the solitary graves in the Pilbara. From memory only 'Treacle Dick' actually died in his bed of natural causes. Graves were researched by the local storekeeper. Cheers Heather

This might be of interest.

Ans All So Far From Home

When we were at Ora Banda last year, Mike Lucas (from the Pub) took us out towards Kal and showed us some lonely graves near an old Way Station site.
I am sure that he would be happy to take you there.

Cheers,
Dennis

bungarra - there is a book " Where the dead men lie" by Bruce Simpson and Ian Tinney which is tales of graves, pioneers and old bush pubs in south west Qld.


A J

Gidday bungarra, I came across this little cemetery on the Monal Creek road between Monto and Kroombit Tops park at Easter last year, interesting history through that area
Cheers
Rob MacImage Could Not Be Found

This one's out on its own near the Algebuckina Bridge, Neales R. on the Ood. Tk.

It’s interesting you write about this because I’ve looked at old sites and thought I’d seen it all. That was until I started to knock around with a few locals blokes throughout Australia.

A couple of times we walked through the bush and it was mentioned that Wally, Larry or Fred etc met his demise for all sorts of reasons.

Back earlier in this decade I was out with a couple of old blokes with maps and Council records dating back to the early 1930. We came across many overgrown outstations in WA.

The number of shallow graves I saw of forgotten men was a sobering experience to say the least. Their only memory was the scant knowledge of my companions and hearsay.

It would seem that most died from an accident, bad health, or death from being lost in the bush. There was no mention of an altercation with Aboriginals as far as I can recall.

Often we hear about the popular losses, but there must be thousands of men, women and babies relegated to a time we have no knowledge of.

Life was certainly tough without compromise.

Cheers

You might like to take a look at this book written by Bruce Simpson..great reading....

Where the Dead Men Lie

Cheers, The Landy