Sites

At the grave site it was found that a 3-4 metre-wide track had been bulldozed
diagonally across an old unmarked burial ground. The track is one of a number that
had been cut across this part of the Klipdam portion of the Holpan mining operation
to provide access for prospecting machinery. At the burial ground the track itself has
probably disturbed the surface cairns of perhaps half a dozen graves. The greatest
damage, however, was caused when digging machinery was used on 3 July 2008 to
excavate a prospecting pit within the distribution of graves, directly impacting at least
one and possibly more of the graves. Inspection of the site revealed clear evidence of a prospecting pit having been filled in, with indications of grave contents on the surface including juvenile human skeletal remains and pieces of coffin including decomposing wood and metal coffin handles. 

The extent of the burial ground, where some of the graves were hardly visible and others may have no surface trace at all, was found to be defined by GPS readings: It is bounded on the south side by an old road to Windsorton and on all the
remaining sides by old diamond diggings. One of the grave cairns lies partly on a diamond-digging heap, indicating that the burials partly post-date or are nearly contemporary with the diggings here. Oral evidence from a Mr Pule indicated that his uncle Samuel Daniel Stambert, who died in his eighties five years ago, had told of the death of 500 people from drinking contaminated water when he was 17. It was claimed that this was a burial ground at which they were interred. It was not clear that there were as many as 500 graves here, but all indications were that these graves were indeed more than 60 years old, and hence subject to the provisions of the National Heritage Resources Act.