Dear Editor,

The NT Planning Commission is currently considering a rezoning application over land that once provided access to the Kulaluk Cemetery via the historic extension of Totem Road. Yet the exhibited material made no reference to that history.

Most Darwin people know the Gardens Road Cemetery. It was placed on the Northern Territory Heritage Register in 1999 and is protected for its historical significance.

Less well known is the Kulaluk Cemetery on the Kulaluk lease lands. It was established following the creation of the Bagot Aboriginal Reserve in 1938. Historical records consistently identify the former Bagot Reserve burial ground, known as the Aboriginal Cemetery, Native Burial Ground and Bagot Cemetery, as today’s Kulaluk Cemetery.

Government records from the 1970s recorded more than 200 burials. And government correspondence from 1974 acknowledged the burial ground as an established fact and discussed its survey, reservation and future management.

Anthropologist Bill Day’s extensive archival research shows that this cemetery continued to serve Darwin’s Aboriginal community long after the Bagot Reserve period. His research draws on National Archives records, Department of Aboriginal Affairs files, historical maps, government correspondence and photographs.

It also documents the long history of the Totem Road access track and records that the road itself takes its name from the Tiwi pukamani burial poles once associated with graves in the area.

For generations, the unsealed extension of Totem Road provided foot and vehicle access to the cemetery and the wider Kulaluk lands. Historical records show the area was valued by Larrakia people and other Aboriginal groups for cultural, family and recreational purposes, while generations of Darwin residents also used it for recreation.

This broader pattern of use is important because the historical record suggests the Kulaluk lease lands were understood not as a fenced private estate, but as open green space valued for their natural, cultural and historical significance.

The Kulaluk lease was converted to a Crown lease in perpetuity in 1987. In the decades that followed, successive Northern Territory governments increasingly encouraged commercial development through the subleasing of parts of the lease.

In 2014, the large block adjoining the Coconut Grove clock tower was rezoned from Conservation to the site-specific SD44 Light Industrial zone, known as the Seth Chin block. The native vegetation was completely cleared, the land fenced and “no trespassing” signs erected despite fierce and widespread community opposition.

The historic Totem Road access route to the Kulaluk Cemetery was blocked, and Larrakia families whose ancestors are buried there could no longer freely visit the cemetery.

Also in 2014, Larrakia Nation nominated the Kulaluk Lease for heritage listing. After the Heritage Council declined to proceed, Larrakia Nation successfully appealed to the Lands, Planning and Mining Tribunal, which directed that an independent historical review be undertaken.

In 2015, heritage consultant David Ritchie recommended heritage listing because of the lease’s outstanding cultural and historical significance. The Heritage Council supported heritage listing, but the recommendation was rejected by Dave Tollner, the NT Planning Minister at the time.

Twelve years after the Seth Chin block was cleared, fenced and filled, no industrial development has ever happened.

Now the Planning Commission is considering rezoning the land for more intensive commercial development. The historic Totem Road access to the Kulaluk Cemetery has quietly disappeared from Darwin’s public memory.

Sonja Pastor, Fannie Bay.

READ: Bill Days archival material on Kulaluk Cemetery