This week, Roy decided that he wanted to head towards the Blue Mountains for his weekly outing. Recently, we had purchased a very old tourist guide to the Blue Mountains and noticed that in the guide, there was mention of convict graves on Pulpit Hill, behind the Explorers Tree. Roy was really intrigued by this possibility because we have visited Pulpit Hill (you can read about his visit by clicking here), and had never heard anything about convict graves. Roy just had to see what we could find. We eventually located the 'graves', and Roy was so surprised by this secret place that he thought he would share it with his online friends.
If you would like to visit the graves on Pulpit Hill, they are located not far from the Explorers Tree. Pulpit Hill is just West of Katoomba (NSW) along the Great Western Highway. Turn off and park near the Explorers Tree, and then look for a road heading up the hill on the right behind the tree. At the top of the hill there is a smaller track which leads to the graves. You should be able to see the graves from the start of the track. The walk is very short and only takes about 5 minutes.
The graves on Pulpit Hill are really very mysterious and, like the Explorers Tree which is located nearby, there is a lot of controversy surrounding them. In fact, there is actually a lot of debate about whether they are graves at all and, if they are, exactly how many of them there are, how many there should be and who they belong to. The first person to write about the graves was Rene Primevere Lesson who was travelling over the Blue Mountains in 1824. He and a friend climbed the 'old road' up the hill, which he called Mount Sepulchre and saw the grave of a youg man who died and was buried there in 1822. After this account though, there is no mention of graves in the area of Pulpit Hill until 1894 when a map was printed by the Department of Lands which marked an old cemetery on the hill behind the Explorers Tree. This map was reprinted in 1902 and 1914 as part of tourist guides.
Roy thinks these early references suggest that there may be burials on Pulpit Hill, and certainly when we climbed the road and walked into the clearing, we found mounds of stones which looked a lot like old graves. They were in a clearing which was reasonably well cared for, and there were even stones around the outside of the clearing which seemed to enclose the 'graves'. Modern additions or otherwise? We don't know. We have read that the hill is called 'Pulpit Hill' because early Church services were held there, and so Roy thinks that this would be a logical place for very early burials. The question remains though, how many graves should there be on Pulpit Hill and who do they belong to. The early account mentions only one grave, while elderly people who lived nearby or visited the graves in the early 1900s said there were only 3 or 5 of them. Even in 1933 it was thought that only a few of the graves were real with the Sydney Morning Herald reporting that there were 22 'graves' on the hill, but only 3 of them were likely to contain actual burials. Like the Explorers Tree, whose inscription seems to have changed over the years, the number of graves on the hill seems to have varied greatly. Similarly, the most popular story about who is buried on Pulpit Hill says the graves belong to convicts who died while working on the road over the mountains, but others think that free settlers are also represented. In fact, according to one elderly resident, two of the graves belonged to children, who were very unlikely to be convicts working on the road! Others still say the graves belong to Aborigines who lived in the area. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any records to say who is buried in the graves, if indeed anybody is, so who the graves belong to will probably remain a mystery. However many graves there should be though, and whoever they belong to, Roy thinks this is a fascinating place to visit, and well worth a stop! If you would like to learn more about the graves on Pulpit Hill, click here.
