Outback Graves Markers
Outback Graves Markers
Region: Goldfields-Esperance
Coordinates: -27.61378, 120.5463
Directions: 40 km northwest of Leinster and 43 km south of Wiluna
Number of Graves: 30
First Burial: January 2 1900 James Butler a miner aged 50 yrears died of natural causes
Last Burial: April 14 1943 Carlo Paula a Licensed Victualler aged 57 died from cardiac disease and bronchitis
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Gold was discovered in the area in 1895. Officials lobbied for a town site to be created in 1896 following the realisation that the area was becoming an important mining centre. The mining warden suggested 3 possible names, Clifton after himself; Herberton after Herberts the original finder of gold in the area and Newmanton, after A W Newman, the surveyor, but since the area was already well known as Mount Sir Samuel the Mount was dropped and the town became Sir Samuel. The townsite was gazetted in 1897.
The name is derived from the nearby Mount Sir Samuel which was named after Chief Justice and Lieutenant-Governor of South Australia Sir Samuel James Way by the explorer Lawrence Wells who was on a surveying expedition in the area in 1892.
A police station camp was opened in the town in 1899 which consisted of tents and brush shelters. The camp was later burnt down in 1901. Tenders were called for to build a new station in 1902 that was completed in 1903 but then closed down in 1910 and the building was removed to Youanmi in 1911.
In 1938, an article in the Western Mail estimated that Sir Samuel had a population of 4,000 people at its peak (in about 1908), and included two pubs, three banks, a post office, a school, a rifle range, and a racecourse.
The Bellevue mine was working at top pressure and using 100 head of stamps. It was one of the best gold producers in the State.
WA Govt Media Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Ancestral remains were returned to Tjiwarl people with a repatriation ceremony at Sir Samuel Cemetery
A repatriation ceremony will be held today at the Sir Samuel Cemetery, about 43 kilometres north of Leinster, with the remains of an ancestor of the Tjiwarl people returned to the community and respectfully buried.
The Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage; Western Australian Museum and Tjiwarl Aboriginal Corporation have been working to return an ancestor of the Tjiwarl people to the Sir Samuel Cemetery, as part of the department's ancestral remains repatriation program.
The ancestral remains were collected by the WA Museum in 1899 and cared for at the museum. The 19th and early 20th century practice of collecting human remains reflected the wider interest in indigenous peoples by museums worldwide.
Interesting article (available through trove newspapers)
Western Mail 16 June 1938. Mt Sir Samuel then and now – 30 years
