5000-year-old burial sites protected at Murramarang resort 

4 July 2024
Written by Allie Voyage

Take a stroll around the grounds at NRMA Murramarang Beachfront Holiday Resort and you’ll find something truly special nestled in among the happy holiday makers. Two ancient burial sites belonging to a First Nations woman and her child, and an ancient warrior sit within the grounds of this holiday park. Their presence telling the story of the traditional owners of Country.

When NRMA took over the Murramarang Beachfront Holiday Resort from its former owners, there were two cleared spaces in the middle of the grounds. Known to be the burial sites of Aboriginals, their graves had been hastily and unceremoniously marked with generic pool fencing that was often used by guests to dry towels on.

For the Elders of the community, and for Di Ellis, Senior Indigenous Affairs Manager, something had to change. “When we turned up there were black fences, very basic. They were square, the grass was higher than the fence.”

“It was a very uncomfortable feeling,” says Di of the atmosphere in the park at this time. “It was very disturbed.”

After a lot of consultation with the Elders of the area, Di started to engineer plans to make sure the departed ones were honored and respected. Through stories handed down over the centuries, it came to be known that one burial plot was the final resting place of a woman who had died in childbirth - and her child – and is approximately 5,500 years old.

Not 50 metres away lies the final resting place of a warrior- buried with his spear – who is approximately 7,000 years old.

Cory Maddison, a local Yuin man, is the maintenance manager for Murramarang Beachfront Holiday Resort and Di enlisted his help, with Elder approval, to make Cory the man on the ground and the official custodian of the burial sites.

Knowing the ancestors of the area needed more than a makeshift pool fence around them, Di and Cory set to work finding the best way to mark these sacred graves.

While working on their plans for a peaceful resting place, Di and Cory found documents that showed the burial sites already had Heritage Status, despite their lack of upkeep.

These papers, however, had the sites switched and showed the warrior’s resting place as that of the mother and child, and vice versa.

It was a kookaburra that first alerted Cory to the mix-up.

“I was working on the mum and bub and there was always a kookaburra that kept coming and landing on the fence when I was working,” says Cory.

“I just felt uneasy, and I didn't feel like I should be there. That told me it was mum and bub so I had to stop working there until I had permission from a local woman.”

After discovering the heritage paperwork, Cory was able to recognise the mistake that had been made by studying the accompanying photos. And finally, the sites were able to be marked correctly.

“Over the next period, I sourced some local basalt stone,” says Cory of the rocks that have now been used to honor the deceased. Two stones have been placed on the site of the mother and child, with a smaller one cradled into the larger. And for the warrior, a sturdy, powerful stone was chosen to symbolise his strength.

Now that the three are at peace, Cory says there’s an incredible difference in the energies of the area. "Now that we’ve smoked the areas, it just feels so much more peaceful. Now that they’re at peace."

“You just feel it, you just know that they’re at ease,” says Di who has seen an influx of visitors now curious about the sites and stone markings. And she tells them, for anyone concerned about camping near such a spiritual resting place, “They’re happy now, so you’re protected.”

With plans to do more at the holiday park, such as plaques and a yarning circle, Cory has also recently created a message stick for NRMA with timber sourced from the forest floor.

“It was a pleasure and an honour to be able to make something so big for the company and for our people that is being recognised all around the country.”

The three lines on the stick represent patience, tolerance, and respect – qualities that Cory hopes each of us will try our hardest to achieve every day.

This message stick is currently visiting NRMA holiday parks across the nation as part of NAIDOC week.