Dollypot, Greenhide and Spindrift:
a journal of bush history
Vol 2. No. 2
ABORIGINAL BURIALS AT THE ONE-MILE
Cemetery Reserve No 9721
WYNDHAM PORT, EAST KIMBERLEY.
by
Yvonne Coate
Recently I discovered during my research into lonely graves, a forgotten cemetery located at the One-Mile (east-north-east of the town site) in Wyndham – near the Gully Cemetery. I had recorded the names and dates of Aboriginal people who died in custody in the early 20th century. The first burial recorded at the “One-Mile” (Aboriginal Cemetery Reserve No 9721) was Walmil in 1902 – his Death Certificate stated “buried on the marsh one mile from Wyndham”. The second death in 1903 was Olalie – “buried at the Wyndham One Mile”. The fifth death on 15.5.1904 was recorded as being “buried at the Native Cemetery, One-Mile near Wyndham”. From that date Death Certificates stated – buried at “the One Mile near Wyndham”.
As all (other) ‘Mile Pegs’, such as the 3-Mile, 4-Mile, 9-Mile, 10-Mile and 12-Mile are situated along Great Northern Highway south-east from the Wyndham town site, ‘One-Mile’ created an unlikely impression that this burial ground was in the marsh on the edge of Cambridge Gulf. However, it turned out that it was located near the resumed Government Abattoirs (meat works said to be located at One-Mile) and the Gully Cemetery (Reserve No 20359, Wyndham Lot 441) which was surveyed in 1922 on Gully Road, Wyndham Port – the first residential street in Wyndham. To-day the “One Mile” Aboriginal Cemetery is unmarked and forgotten by all but perhaps a few Elders.
Aboriginal deaths were not officially registered until from the mid 1940’s, 1950-1960’s onward. However, registration of Aboriginal prison deaths in European custody, were mandatory (registered with the Registrar Generals’ Office) and a Death Certificate is available on application for each person.
There are indications of more people having been buried in Aboriginal Cemetery Reserve No 9721 before and after those listed below, when taking into account that
(1) before 1896 Death Certificates did not state ‘place of burial’, but Aboriginal deaths in custody were registered before the turn-of-the-century, and
(2) a letter dated 19th June 1951 was written to the Under Secretary for Lands by SG Middleton, Commissioner of Native Affair, regarding the Wyndham Native Cemetery. “Great difficulty has been experienced at the native Hospital, Wyndham, in regard to the burial of natives in that the existing site is so stony and hard that labour cannot be procured to dig grave plots. ....It has now been recommended that the ground most suited for sinking graves is located at the ‘10 Mile Flat’ and as this in close proximity to an all weather road it is recommended that a Reserve for a Native Cemetery be proclaimed within this area and that the existing Reserve be cancelled” (No 9721 was cancelled 30.11.1951).
One such person was –
BIDDI BUDDA alias Jimmy, died 24.2.1932 aged 40 years in the Wyndham Government Hospital
- buried in the Wyndham native cemetery by JJ Taylor and John Franklin Flinders (Sergeant of Police No 943), Wyndham.
A nomad Aboriginal, who died of a gunshot wound to the pelvis.
Following are details of those buried on Cemetery Reserve No 9721 between 1902 and 1906 –
WALMIL, died 7.10.1902 aged about 30 years at Wyndham Gaol, McPhee Street, Wyndham
- buried on the Marsh one mile from Wyndham by Joseph Herbert Kelly in witness of 2 Aboriginals –
Mick and Tommy.
An Aboriginal prisoner, who choked at dinner.
OLALIE, died 7.7.1903 aged 28 years at the gaol in Wyndham
- buried at the Wyndham One Mile by Joseph Herbert Kelly in witness of 2 Aboriginals – Merrie alias Charley Payne and Ualling alias George.
An Aboriginal prisoner, who died of tuberculosis. Born c1875 at Sturts Creek, Kimberley Goldfields.
JURIVANGA, died 7.4.1904 aged 60 years in the Wyndham Gaol
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham.
An Aboriginal native prisoner, who died of asthma.
WILBING, died 6.5.1904 aged 50 years in the Wyndham Gaol
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham.
An Aboriginal native prisoner, who died of pneumonia and heart failure.
GILLINGEE, died 15.5.1904 aged 32 years in the Wyndham Gaol
- buried at the Native Cemetery, One-Mile near Wyndham.
An Aboriginal native prisoner.
CADJIVELL alias CHARLIE, died 28.5.1904 aged about 60 years in the Wyndham Gaol
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham.
An Aboriginal native prisoner, who died of senile asthma.
COOLINGHENA, died 10.6.1904 aged about 38 years in the Government Hospital at Wyndham
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham.
An Aboriginal native prisoner, who died of pneumonia and heart failure.
NUMERUDGY, died 22.6.1904 aged about 60 years in the Wyndham Gaol
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham.
An Aboriginal native prisoner.
WIGMARRY alias JIMMY, died 22.7.1904 aged 30 years in the Wyndham Gaol
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham.
An Aboriginal native prisoner.
LARANGA alias TOMMY CAHILL, died 4.9.1904 aged about 50 years in the Wyndham Gaol
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham.
An Aboriginal native prisoner, who died of pneumonia and heart failure.
CARWABINE, died 12.10.1904 aged about 30 years in the Wyndham Gaol
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham.
An Aboriginal native prisoner.
WANGANME, died 20.10.1904 aged about 40 years in the Wyndham Gaol
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham.
An Aboriginal native prisoner.
JIPKINE, died 4.12.1904 aged 30 years in the Wyndham hospital
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham.
An Aboriginal native prisoner, who died of pneumonia and heart failure.
NOUMARRING, died 17.4.1905 aged 16 years in the Wyndham Gaol
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham.
An Aboriginal native prisoner, who died of heart failure.
GINCULLINGAH, died 19.4.1905 aged 45 years in the Wyndham Gaol
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham.
An Aboriginal native prisoner, who died of heart failure.
CHERENUNURRIE alias TOPSY, died 28.3.1906 aged about 23 years in the Police Station, Wyndham
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham by John Joseph Curran.
An Aboriginal native, who died of beri beri.
MOWARGUIN alias CHARLIE, died 2.4.1906 aged about 18 years at Wyndham
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham by John Joseph Curran.
An Aboriginal native, who died of beri beri.
TOMBIN/TAMBING alias CHARCOAL, died 20.7.1906 aged about 30 years in the Government Hospital, Wyndham.
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham by John Joseph Curran.
An Aboriginal native, who died of beri beri.
SAMO, died 16.8.1906 aged about 16 years in the Government Hospital Wyndham
- buried at the One-Mile near Wyndham by John Joseph Curran.
An Aboriginal native.
The last recorded burials in 1906 were not prisoners who died in custody, although to have been buried there, circumstances must have been such that they were not kin based to local Aboriginals. Cherenunurrie alias Topsy seems to be the only female. It is interesting also to note that three of them died from beri beri. As they were young, they may have been working as crew on pearling luggers, because in their native surrounds near Wyndham, there was a readily available variety of bush food for a well-balanced diet (vegetable bush foods – fish and shell fish on the coast – water birds, eggs and waterlily roots around lagoons and swamps). The reason for these Aboriginal burials being in a European style cemetery was because they had been taken to Wyndham from outlying places, away from their tribal grounds.
Many old cemeteries throughout the state were used for burial before their date of survey, and few Aboriginals in those times were interred in consecrated soil within the bounds of a Christian cemetery. So it was that on 25thMay 1905, D Browne, Resident Magistrate in Wyndham wrote to The Lands Department in Perth, requesting “that some small piece of land near Wyndham, preferably in the vicinity of the “One Mile”, be allotted as a cemetery for Aboriginals, prisoners and others, of this town and neighbourhood”. As a consequence one acre of land (“C” class reserve) was set aside mainly for the burial of Aboriginal prisoners who died in custody in the Wyndham gaol (Gazetted 23.6.1905). It was most unusual, and it may have been some of the first Western Australian land officially set aside for the sole purpose of indigenous burials, as internments at that time were generally carried out in the bush according to tribal customs.
As old graveyards are part of our pioneering history, for heritage purposes it would be important for this little Wyndham Cemetery Reserve No 9721 to be monumented in some way, and in so doing help preserve its existence for prosterity.
Acknowledgement to Laura Stuchbury, State Land Services – Kimberley Regional Office, Department for Planning and Infrastructure, for confirmation and (approximate) positioning of Reserve No 9721 onto a current map.
FINIS
