Jerry Bailey Burial Ground Shoalhaven Heads
The Jerry Bailey Burial Ground at Shoalhaven Heads, NSW, is the earliest known burial site in the City of Shoalhaven, used from 1830 to 1917 for both European and Indigenous burials.
A burial ground is land used for the disposal of dead, whilst a cemetery serves the same purpose but is on consecrated land. Jerry Bailey Burial Ground was used for the burials of both European and Indigenous people 1830 to 1917. The Burial Ground has been recorded with a range of different names apart from Jerry Bailey and Coolangatta as individual place names during its time of usage for burials such as:
1898: Jerry Bailey Coolangatta, Esther Judson burial record, St Lukes Berry, Church of England.
1901: Blacks Cemetery Jerry Bailey, William Judson burial record, St Lukes Berry, Church of England.
1903: Jerry Bailey Cemetery, Frederick Ardler burial record, Nowra All Saints, Church of England.
Only two headstones remain, those of Thomas Greer (1841) and John Weeks (1877), with the Greer headstone being the oldest surviving in Shoalhaven. These are now held by the Berry Museum.
Our research using (but not limited to) the early church records 1830 – 1855, civil death registrations 1856 – 1920, local church burial records, coroners’ reports, newspaper articles has collated a burial inventory of 87 known burials with 38 of these burials been that of indigenous people of Cullunghutti (Coolangatta Mountain). Some of the non-indigenous individuals buried at Jerry Bailey Burial Ground have connections with Indigenous people.
The first known indigenous burial is that of William Took Dixon in June 1866, age 30 years, born 1837 Coolangatta. There are also ten convicts and three other persons who died on the Coolangatta Estate between 1827 and 1898, whose exact burial place is not recorded; and maybe possible buried at Jerry Bailey. This brings the number of potential burials on the said site to just over 100.
One of these burials is refer to in the Nowra Leader, 6 February 1914: 7 – In the 30’s (1830s) a certain number of men took to the bush in and around Coolangatta. They robbed the store at Coolangatta and goods not required for immediate use they planted for the future. At the time there was a new made grave in Jerry Bailey, a young butcher died and was buried there.
References: Cathy Dunn, ‘Jerry Bailey Burial Database’, unpublished, 2025. Database includes exact date of death, death age, cause of death, parents, birth location, birth date or year and other historical information on individuals buried at Jerry Bailey Burial Ground and Cathy Dunn, Australian History Research Jerry Bailey Archive Collection.
Some other Indigenous Burials in Public Cemeteries and Burial Grounds in the Shoalhaven pre 1920s are:
Miryyal Baptisms – Burials – Marriages Church Records of the Budawang People South Coast NSW
Each of the Church records for Aboriginal people from Milton, Ulladulla, Nelligen, Brooman, Braidwood, Araluen, Moruya, Turlinjah, Bateman Bay, Broulee, Currowan, Conjola, Buckenboura, Narrawallee, Redhead plus others, has been cross referenced with civil registration, with the notation of a nil registration where applicable. More Details
Racecourse Cemetery Boatharbour Ulladulla 1856 – 1900
Ulladulla’s Old Cemetery, also known as Racecourse Cemetery, which was active for burials from 1856 to 1900, with various cemetery names recorded throughout its history. Despite its current abandoned state and only four surviving headstones, it is believed there are 100 burials on the site. More Details
