Bury Hill Aboriginal Cemetery

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that the following contains descriptions of deceased persons’ remains.

Bury Hill got its name due to the area being an indigenous burial ground before colonisation (reference). In 1933 Money Street was being levelled in preparation for housing when the workers found three skulls (reference). This area was already known to be the final resting place of Aboriginal people as human remains had previously been found in its proximity (reference). The remains were examined and declared to belong to a male and two females from over 100 years ago (reference). 

Llewellyn Buswell, nicknamed Paddy, was a part of the Money Street project (reference). In the Blackwood Times, 28 August 1953, he states that he filled a sugar bag full of skulls and sold them to a ‘doctor’ for 5 shillings (reference).

The remains of Aboriginal people were stolen in Australia until the late 1940s (reference). Evidently, Bunbury also had the remains of its traditional owners stolen from their resting place at Bury Hill and taken to who knows where. Please let the relevant authorities know if you have information on the location of these remains so they can be returned. More information on the stealing and exportation of Aboriginal Australian human remains can be found at Aboriginal Remains Repatriation. This article by Jens Korff, 2020, covers in detail this largely unknown part of Australian history.

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies are currently completing a Return of Cultural Heritage project as for “250 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural heritage has been removed overseas and placed in museums, universities, and private collections (reference).” While the return of ancestral remains is not within their project’s scope, their initiative demonstrates that wrongs of the past can be addressed (reference). Other institutions, including the Australian Government’s Office for the Arts facilitate Indigenous Repatriation to return ancestral remains (reference).