Vietnam veterans, rough sleepers and other impoverished Australians are being buried in unmarked communal graves often holding four or more people in New South Wales. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

Investigation findings

A Guardian Australia investigation has identified more than 100 unmarked graves across New South Wales, and some in Queensland, that are being used by state governments to bury those deemed too poor to afford their own funerals.

At Rookwood cemetery in Sydney, bare stretches of earth between dirt walkways and old headstones are being used to bury the remains of four to six strangers together in communal graves. Among those being buried together are war veterans, cancer sufferers, people with gambling addictions and severe mental illness, and migrants from developing countries whose families cannot afford exorbitant repatriation costs.

Families speak out

Chantel Dubsky said her brother Roger Davies, a rough sleeper, was buried in an unmarked grave with four strangers at Rookwood without her knowledge.

"It's unspeakable," said Dubsky. "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, he was someone's brother. He was my brother."

By crosschecking names with homelessness services in Sydney, Guardian Australia has also identified a further 18 individuals in the communal graves who had experienced homelessness.

Homelessness sector outrage

Two leaders in Sydney's homelessness sector say they were never made aware of the practice of using unmarked communal graves and are not being given the chance to intervene on behalf of their clients to fund a proper burial.

A third service, the Rev Bill Crews Foundation, an inner-city Sydney homelessness charity, says it has repeatedly raised concerns with the state government about the possible use of unmarked and communal graves but has been ignored.

The Rev Bill Crews, who runs the foundation, identified three of his clients as being among those in the communal graves but said he had not been told about their deaths and impending burials.

"It's outrageous," Crews said. "We did not know – they would all have had a dignified funeral and a proper cremation, and their ashes would have been scattered in the sea. For us, it's frustrating. Incredibly frustrating."

Veterans buried without funding

Guardian Australia has also established that two veterans of the Vietnam war, who both served in the Royal Australian Navy, were buried in unmarked communal graves in 2024 and 2025.

The pair were buried despite the availability of a federal funding program run by the Department of Veterans' Affairs to help pay for the funerals of impoverished veterans. NSW policy recommends state health authorities approach DVA in such cases.

DVA was never asked for funding for the 2024 and 2025 burials. A spokesperson said it has "not been approached to help fund the burials of destitute persons since 2020".

Government response

The Guardian's investigation has prompted an apology from NSW Health, which has flagged changes to improve the process, and criticism from the health minister, Ryan Park, who described the failings as "unacceptable".

In the first half of this year alone, a 17-metre stretch of earth adjacent to a dirt pathway at Rookwood has been dug up and used to bury the remains of more than 40 people in unmarked communal graves, including a rough sleeper who was well-known to most major homelessness services.

Nothing has been left to mark the 17-metre stretch of graves. Inspections of the sites of hundreds of other burials at Rookwood since 2010 show only about a dozen are marked by crosses or plaques.

The vast majority have no crosses, plaques or headstones to name the groups of deceased in each plot. There are also no signs to indicate the presence of graves.

Older sites, where the earth has settled, appear simply as long stretches of grass.

Markings are generally not used in Queensland for the smaller number of people buried under its scheme. The use of communal graves is much rarer in that state.

The situation contrasts sharply with the process embraced by Victoria, where each individual is given their own grave and a simple marking.