Whispers from the past. That’s what you feel at the Coast Hospital Cemetery and Dharawal Resting Place. Here at the northern edge of Botany Bay lies a place steeped in history. A place of sorrow and healing. A place of both death and rebirth.
The Coast Hospital Cemetery. Established in the 1880s it served the Coast Hospital. Originally a smallpox hospital it later became an infectious diseases hospital. People who died from smallpox influenza bubonic plague typhoid fever or even leprosy were buried here. As many as 2000 graves are here. Many are unmarked. Some headstones are hard to read. The cemetery fell into disrepair.
But there is more to this cemetery than just illness and death. On the eastern edge a sign tells a different story. Here also lie the ancestral remains of the La Perouse Aboriginal people. These remains were returned from museums around the world. In June 2002 the first reburials took place. This is the Dharawal Resting Place. A sacred site. A place of homecoming.
Imagine the lives lived here. The suffering endured. The families separated by disease and death. Then picture the quiet dignity of the reburials. The return of ancestors to their traditional lands.
A place of sorrow. A place of respect. A place where the past whispers to the present. Coast Hospital Cemetery and Dharawal Resting Place. A poignant reminder of epidemics. A testament to resilience and healing. A tribute to the enduring strength of the human spirit. A place where history and culture intertwine. The stories are waiting to be heard. Listen closely.