Hundreds of Hidden Burial Sites Found by "Dave the Grave"

A man known as "Dave the Grave" has used special radar equipment to find hundreds of hidden graves in two small towns in far-west New South Wales, Australia. In July 2025, the Central Darling Shire Council hired Dave Hunter to search for lost burial sites in the towns of Menindee and White Cliffs. He discovered more than 300 unmarked graves in each location, all connected to cemeteries that already existed. His work is helping communities honor people whose burial places had been forgotten for years.

Hunter's interest in finding buried things started when he was a teenager. His grandfather gave him the job of locating buried bulls on a farm in Rushworth, in northern Victoria. To do it, he built a simple radar device using a tool called a multimeter. That early experience sparked a lifelong passion for finding what lies hidden underground.

Today, Hunter uses a much more advanced piece of equipment called ground-penetrating radar. The machine looks a bit like a lawn mower and is pushed along the ground. It works by measuring changes in the soil, called electrical resistivity, to find spots where the earth has been disturbed. Best of all, it can find graves without anyone ever needing to dig.

Hunter said figuring out whether a disturbance in the soil is actually a grave takes some careful thinking. He looks for a shape that is about six feet long and three feet wide and goes at least a meter deep. "If we're in a cemetery context, and the disturbance is roughly six foot by roughly three foot wide, and goes down at least a metre, then generally speaking, you're probably looking at a grave," he said. It is not a perfect science, but his experience helps him make smart guesses.

Once the graves are found, the hard work of identifying who is buried there begins. The council's cemetery officer, Tammie McMaster, is now talking to local people and searching through old council records and archives. She hopes to put names to as many of the lost graves as possible. "If I could do the majority, just to put a name to these people, that would be absolutely fantastic," she said.

McMaster said the project matters for more than just record-keeping. It is also about showing respect for the people who are buried there and for their living relatives. The council is now looking at doing the same kind of search in other nearby communities, including Wilcannia and Tilpa. Hunter said it was deeply satisfying to see markers placed on graves that had been lost for so long, especially in Menindee, where the number of discoveries was truly eye-opening.