Shock discovery under Sydney’s Central train station

A train station used by millions in the heart of Sydney has been hiding a grisly secret underneath its bustling platforms.

The millions of Australians who have passed through Sydney’s Central station likely had no idea what secrets lay underneath its bustling platforms.

But now, more of the site’s colonial history is coming to light, with the shock discovery of a 181-year-old burial vault, containing 11 graves, being uncovered during excavations for the new metro platforms.

The name plates on the graves date back to as early as 1840 and give an insight into early settlement of the area and burial practices in colonial Sydney.

Now, a search is underway for the descendants of two colonial Sydney families named on the graves, the Perry and Ham families.

Dr Iain Stuart, the excavation director for the Sydney Metro project, said it was previously known there was a cemetery at the site, but historians had believed the site had been entirely removed in 1901 and 1902 when authorities exhumed about 35,000 bodies from the site.

A 181-year-old burial vault, containing 11 graves, was found at the site.

He urged relatives or descendants of the Perry or Ham families to make contact with the Sydney Metro team.

“The Ham family were quite well known in literary circles in Sydney and Victoria,” he said. “These things seem to be so far away in the past, but we’re talking to people who are really are very close to them, we’re talking to people who are great grandchildren of them.

“So it helps to remind us that early Sydney is not that far away from the present day.”

Since uncovering the artefacts in 2019, work has been underway to determine the identities using photographic modelling and cross-referencing burial records.

This is the second grave with a legible nameplate to be uncovered during construction work on the new Sydney Metro platforms.

In 2019, a search uncovered a number of descendants of Joseph Thompson whose nameplate dating back to 1858 was identified during Central excavations.

Mr Thompson’s remains will be reinterred at a ceremony with his descendants later this year at Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park.

Passengers at Central Station. Picture: Toby Zerna

The Central Station site was once the Devonshire Street Cemetery, which was closed in 1867.

Despite most of the graves being removed prior to the construction of Central Station in 1901, more than 60 graves and five vaults have been discovered since.

Central is undergoing its biggest upgrade in decades, with new metro platforms being built 27 metres underground and the delivery of a new underground concourse.

Central Walk is expected to be completed in 2022 and will open while Sydney Metro construction continues, with metro rail services between Bankstown and Chatswood starting in 2024.