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Colonist, Issue 63, 28 May 1858, Page 3

THE BUSH GRAVES OF AUSTRALIA. After an absence of many long years from Europe I can still call up quiet nooks,*overhung with the drooping branches of sombre trees, where the dead sleep, under the shade of venerated Gothic churches, in whose silent, solemn aisles they had worshipped, one generation after another, for ages. How different in Australia. Many poor immigrants have died, with a sad heart, -in the bush— amongst strangers, sorely troubled, even in their last moments, that their remains would not be laid in ground consecrated and specially set apart for hitman sepulture—that their dust would not commingle with that of their fore-fathers. It is to be regretted that such thoughts should throw a gloom over the last hour of suffering humanity. Let not the dying exile be cast down, that he must take his last repose in the lonely forest without a companion ; for-the untrodden continent, the illimitable ocean, are as much sanctified by the presence of .the Mighty God as the churchyard where the ashes of generations commingle together. True, the material part is separated from those dear to the sufferer, but the spirit—the true life—will again unite with those loved on earth. Let there be no virtue in consecration by human authority, is not the whole of this beautiful world alike, refined and spiritualised .by God ?

.In most cases, the dead in Australia ~are laid in the primeval soil/ Tfie only" graves previous to the era of British colonisation being those of the poor aborigines, but in the settled districts no traces of these graves are to be found. The natives of Tasmania and some parts of Australia usually consumed the dead by.fire, but sometimes they concealed the bodies in hollow trees, until decomposition had occurred, when the bones were removed, and often carried about for a long time by the relatives. When a body was to be consumed by the natives of Tasmania, they built a pile of logs and laid it thereon ; at daybreak the lire was applied, and the relatives covered their headß with the ashes from the rude pyre. To these children of the woods, who possess no implements for digging pits of any depth or size, and who considered any interference with the dead as a marked insult, lire presented the easiest resource. The materials could always be'found without the \ise of any other instrument. Fire is the great agent of existence to the Australian savage; in thecoldest weather he warms his naked body by coiling round the burning branches, and needs no clothing or house to cover him : it is little wonder that they should often resort to it to save all further trouble with the dead. In some parts of Australia, particularly in Gipps Land, they hang up the bodies in high gum trees, until they decompose and crumble to pieces. So thick are the leaves in the lofty trees, that they could not, perhaps, procure a better place for concealment. The: greatest affection exists among families; the brothers are particularly attached to one another, ' and frequently carry the bones of a deceased brother with them for a long period. On the Darling and Lachlan the graves are enclosed by ( logs of wood or ridges of earth, and covered with sheets of bark fastened to poles. The ' floor is strewed over with rushes, so that a tomb presents the appearance of a half-finished hut. ■ Here the nearest relations of the deceased sleep for a certain period after the interment, and until decomposition has actually occurred.. This practice, no doubt, has originated in the dread which those children of nature entertain of the remains of their deceased relatives being disinterred by beasts of prey, or strange and hostile blacks. It is ' only for men or boys that this ceremony is deemed necessary: The aborigines of Australia, like all savages, think but little of their women, and bury them without even the triple ridges, which always surround the spot.where males are interred. Generally the graves are in mounds, or in spots sur- ■■ rounded by a tienph. They are enclosed in nearly every case, and sometimes are encircled pleasantly in the interior, as their tombs have long disappeared in the settled portions of the country. It is melancholy to relate that some few of the best and most, adventurous men who have emigrated to Australia have not even received burial, but_ have perished in the wild bush, and have left their bones to whiten in the desert. Amongst this number must, I very much fear, be included .Dr. Leichhardt, the distinguished explorer. A colonial author has a sweet little poem on this subject, arid, as it does credit to our limited Australian literature, I give the first two stanzas :— " lkichhabdt's gbave. " Ye who prepare with pilgrim feet, Your long and doubtful path to wend, If .whitening on the waste, ye meet The relics of ray murdered friend, His bones with rev'rence ye shall bear To where some mountain streamlet flows; There, by its mossy bank, prepare The pillow of his long repose. " It shall be by a stream whose tides Are drunk by birds of every wing; Where every lovelier flower abides, The earliest wak'ning touch of Spring! 0 meet that he who so enressed All-beauteous Nature's varied charms, That he—her martyr'd son should rest Within his mother's fondest arms!" Alas! Leichhardt is not a solitary exception; Kennedy, Gilbert, Cunningham, Strange, and Others of inferior note, have met a nearly similar fate. So great -is the interest in Dr. Leichhardt and his fate, that if the spot where he fell should ever be discovered^ it will become,- in future ages,

when the vast- surges of civilisation have spread over the continent, the most famous of our shrines, and many a pilgrim will.drop a tear for the untimely fate of the brave but unfortunate explorer. . It is no uncommon thing for the traveller in .the wild Bush to come suddenly upon a small enclosed square; he will find a solitary grave inside, which,' but for the wild pallisade, he would have passed unobserved. — Tait's Magazine.