Remains of nearly 2000 people exhumed in wake of shock find at Hutchins School grounds
More than 250 human remains exhumed from the Hutchins School grounds have proven impossible to identify after nearly 2000 graves were uncovered through earthworks for a new building.
Tasmania
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The remains of nearly 2000 people have been removed from the site of an old cemetery on the Hutchins School grounds after earthworks for a new building uncovered graves thought to have been exhumed 60 years ago.
The prestigious Sandy Bay boys’ school announced in April that contractors had discovered two historic graves and human remains at the oval adjacent to the senior school building, where a multipurpose complex is set to be built.
By July, the dig had unearthed the remains of 1331 people. But with the process now complete, that number has increased to a final count of 1973.
In a notice published in the Mercury on Saturday, required under the state’s Burial and Cremation Act, Hutchins confirmed that the remains of 1717 individuals had been identified following their exhumation from the former Queenborough Cemetery on Nelson Rd.
The majority of the remains will be reinterred at the Cornelian Bay Cemetery and a list of the people identified has been published online.
“A memorial service will be held at Cornelian Bay Cemetery in early 2025 – a further public notice will provide details,” the notice said.
“A permanent memorial will be erected at the Cornelian Bay Cemetery and the Peel Street Reserve, Sandy Bay.”
The remains have been placed into new coffins for reburial, which is expected to occur in late January.
According to the Hutchins website, identities were confirmed by consulting burial registers, the Births, Deaths and Marriages registers, headstone transcripts, wills, funeral notices, undertakers’ records, and archaeological evidence.
However, the school said there were instances where it had not been possible to determine separate identities of people who had been buried in family plots.
Hutchins School Old Boys’ Association president Jim Wilkinson, formerly the president of Tasmania’s Legislative Council, said he was impressed with the way the school had handled the matter.
“The way that the school has dealt with it, as far as I’m concerned … they’ve done extremely well,” he said.
Mr Wilkinson said the new capital works at Hutchins were still going ahead and would “set the school up for years to come”.
The multipurpose complex will include an auditorium, a sports centre, and offices.
Hutchins intends to maintain an archive of the exhumation project and will produce a report for the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office and the National Library of Australia.
The school was established in 1846 and was located on Macquarie St for the first century of its existence.
In 1960, Hutchins purchased the Queenborough Cemetery, building a boarding house, science wing, administration block, and classrooms on the site, with sports grounds being a later addition.
Hutchins principal Rob McEwan wrote a letter to parents earlier this year, telling them that the school had been aware that about 1900 exhumations had occurred at the site before 1961.
But he went on to say that “it has now become clear very few of the previous exhumations had occurred on the site of the current building works”.
Tasmania’s Director of Local Government, who is the regulator for the Burial and Cremation Act, has “raised no issues” regarding the way Hutchins handled the dig, according to a state government spokesman.
He said while most of the remains would be reinterred at Cornelian Bay, “separate arrangements” had been made for “persons known to” the Office of Australian War Graves.
To view the list of people identified through the exhumation project, visit hutchins.tas.edu.au/former-queenborough-cemetery-exhumations
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