A small marble headstone sits in the rusty red outback dirt, a monument to two men described as “firm friends during life, now resting here”.
Childhood mates who enlisted in the first world war together, Richard Slingsby and James Renshall are spending eternity side-by-side in Ivanhoe cemetery, in far western New South Wales.
The diggers’ lives are memorialised in just 40 words cast in stone, their humble grave belying an epic tale of camaraderie.
When Renshall was taken prisoner by the Germans in 1917 and feared dead, it was Slingsby he contacted to let him know he had survived.
Upon their return to Australia, the pair worked and lived together on outback stations until they died three years apart in their mid-60s.
Historian Bernadette Drabsch was immediately taken with the unusual grave of the two unrelated men and knew there was a tale waiting to be told.
“If you go to the grave, you wouldn’t know that it’s a beautiful story of two mates surviving against all odds and staying great mates until they died,” Drabsch says.
It is one of 106 stories uncovered for Central Darling shire council’s heritage trail mobile app, which will guide visitors through Menindee, Wilcannia, Ivanhoe and White Cliffs cemeteries.
Aboriginal drovers, pioneering women, scientists, artists and European settler families lie in the sparse graveyards, though many of their histories have never been fully explored.
Drabsch and heritage specialist Ben Churcher spent 18 months identifying graves, trawling newspaper archives, reading local books and interviewing families for the stories behind the stones project.
Wandering through cemeteries is far from morbid; it is essential to understanding the rich character of towns, Drabsch says.
“Such an important part of Australia’s history is encapsulated in these cemeteries,” she says.
“Wilcannia was known as the queen city of the west for a reason; it was a thriving riverside town. There were colourful characters that would roll in on a boat and never leave.
“The stories out there are unique, ones you would never find anywhere else.”
Some of the most stirring and strange stories describe the incredible hardships of life in the early days of federation and just how close death lingered.
Leslie Bennett, a 22-year-old father buried in Wilcannia cemetery, died when a truck full of dead rabbits overturned, trapping him under the 3000kg load.
Frederick Bonser, an engineer at Wilcannia waterworks, died of a heart attack in 1946 after receiving news his wife, Anne, was knocked over by a ram and seriously injured. She lived for another 12 years.
Teenager Reuben Clifton was killed when he fell from a horse that bolted through Menindee, his death casting “a real gloom” over the township.
There are numerous graves for babies and children, particularly poignant for their deaths caused by ailments easily treated by modern medicine.
The descriptions of death on headstones and in public records show how attitudes to mortality have changed over the centuries, Drabsch says.
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“We’re very much more removed from death these days,” she says.
“It was such a big part of life in these early pioneering days, one couple would lose five children – how devastating that must be and for us that’s just inconceivable.
“They would be discussing that as a way of dealing with it, a way of grieving.”
Bringing the lives of women and Indigenous Australians to the fore was a particular focus for the historians.
Newspapers rarely delved into those stories because they were of little interest to the white male reporters and readers.
Aboriginal drovers are buried at Menindee cemetery, including John “Jack” Kelly, a Ngiyampaa man who took sheep, cattle and goats across to the Flinders Ranges.
That journey could take up to six months, and Kelly was known to share Dreamtime legends and stories of his life around campfires.
Highly skilled Aboriginal trackers were also mentioned – though not named – in an unearthed newspaper story about a little boy found 80km from home after going missing for six days.
Ivanhoe horse trainer Margaret Linnett is among the women remembered.
Her family helped the historians shape her entry: “The fact of being mother of a large family did nothing to dampen her enthusiasm for the sport of kings.”
Outback locals have been critical in bringing the stories to life, ensuring their ancestors are not lost to time.
“Their stories, their contribution to these towns, are going to live on a bit longer,” Drabsch says.
“Most people who contacted us just wanted their loved ones to be remembered.
“It’s about giving the stories back to these people.”
