The investigation identified more than 100 unmarked graves in New South Wales and some in Queensland, used by state governments to bury individuals deemed too poor to afford their own funerals. At Sydney's Rookwood cemetery, authorities are using bare stretches of earth between walkways and old headstones to inter the remains of four to six strangers together in common graves.
Among those buried together are Vietnam veterans, cancer sufferers, people with gambling addictions and severe mental illness, and migrants from developing countries whose families cannot afford repatriation costs. In at least six cases, the Guardian found failures by authorities meant friends, family or support workers were either not contacted or not told about the use of unmarked common graves—potentially breaching a NSW policy designed to "avoid causing unnecessary distress to people who may have wished to make other funeral arrangements."
Chantel Dubsky, whose brother Roger Davies—a rough sleeper—was buried in an unmarked grave with four strangers at Rookwood without her knowledge, said: "It's unspeakable. He should have had the opportunity to be laid to rest with his mother, his grandparents and the people he loved, at his home in Adelaide. He wasn't just someone off the street—he was someone's son."