Lonely Graves of the Dardanup Shire

by Janice Calcei
Updated: 2 April 2025

The list below records lonely graves within the boundaries of the Shire of Dardanup.

Henty:

  • Unnamed grave on farm owned by the Simpson family
  • Giumelli, Maria – date of death, 30 July 1914. Buried by her father at Paradise, Henty Estate near Dardanup. Stillborn daughter of Domenica Del Marto and Domenico Giumelli, farmer. Witnesses: Maguire and M Zampatto.

Wellington Mills:

Six babies were buried in a cemetery at Wellington Mills. There is no visible evidence of the site of the cemetery but it is remembered as being situated near the school teacher’s residence, at the western edge of the town, probably close to the boundary with Nittarni.

  • Stillborn baby- STAPLETON, DOD – 14/12/1901. Father- Jeremiah, Mother- Margaret ( nee BIRMINGHAM ).
  • YATES, William – DOD – 27/04/1909, aged 4 days. Father- Richard Waters YATES, Mother- Emma Beatrice ( nee BRANCH ),
  • PARKIN, Stanley – DOD – 09/01/1914, aged 5 Months. Father- John, Mother- Ellen ( Nee BILKEY ),
  • CARMICHAEL, David C – DOD – 28/06/1915 (Infant). Father – William (fettler), Mother- Elizabeth ( Nee SIM ),
  • BINKS, stillborn twin girls born 25/08/1923. Father- James Henry, Mother – May ( Nee BROWN ).

Outback Grave Markers, Inc. provided the commemorative plaques c. 2021 for those buried at Wellington Mills. They are located at the old Wellington Mills fire shed.







David Caldwell Carmichael – “This little boy was the youngest of a family of 9 children in all. Their mother was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1873 and her husband, Willam, a fettler, was also born in Ayrshire in 1876. The first child in the family was registered in 1898 as Daniel Sim, under the mother’s maiden name. The couple then married in Ayrshire, 2 June 1899. Other children born to this couple were: Jane (Jean) born about 1899; Elizabeth Sim born 1900; Jessie, who died in Scotland; willam (died 1968, aged 62 years and is buried with his parents at Lowden in the Donnybrook-Balingup Shire) and Daniel (who was lost overboard during a storm on the voyage to Australia in 1909) both born about 1906; George born 1909; David Caldwell, born 1913, who died in 1914 around 8 months of age and is also buried in the Lowden Cemetery.

At the time of the birth of this little chap, who died a short time after his birth, Mrs Carmichael was much too ill, and also illiterate, so she placed the responsibility of the notification of the birth and death of her child in the hands of her doctor. It was also thought unnecessary to go to the expense of a burial and getting an undertaker from Bunbury. Had she been resident on the Mill, matters could have been facilitated, but she lived about 16 miles from the Mill on the Upper Preston. Her husband did not see her for some days after the birth and death of their child. So the child was cremated at Wellington Mills by Dr Charles Douglas Kerr MD, a Scottish friend, Wellington Mills. The birth was registered but the death was not. The children’s mother died in 1941 and her husband in 1948. They, along with their son, William, and their second youngest child, the first David Caldwell Carmichael, are all buried at the Lowden Cemetery in the Donnybrook-Balingup Shire. This second little David Caldwell, was buried at Wellington Mills in 1915 where he was cremated.”



References:

  • Coate, Yvonne & Kevin; More Lonely Graves of Western Australia (2000), Hesperion Press, Carllisle, Western Australia.
  • Information on baby Carmichael, Information was provided by Outback Markers, Inc when the markers were presented and placed at Wellington Mills.