Grisly find at Hill Street home – February 2016
WEST Hobart home renovators made a gruesome discovery when they uncovered human remains on their property.
But despite the scare this was no house of horrors with police confirming the site had formerly been a graveyard.
The human remains were discovered by workers who were adjusting the foundations of the home at 118A Hill Street, West Hobart.
Police forensic officers attended the Hill St home this morning and found no suspicious circumstances.
“Inquiries with local historians ascertained the site had previously been used as a cemetery by the old Wesley Church, with the last burial on site dating back to 1872,” a police spokeswoman said.
Historical records show 14 bodies were exhumed from the burial ground between 1873 and 1886 and relocated to the then newly opened cemetery at Cornelian Bay.
The Wesleyan Burial Ground was located on a plot of land at the corner of Hill and Hamilton streets.
The house in West Hobart where human remains were discovered. The site had formerly been a graveyard. Picture: ROGER LOVELL
The first burial at the site was in 1840.
The site fell into disrepair with a city health official reporting in 1902 that an open grave existed, according to a Hobart City Council brochure.
The burial ground was sold in 1935 for housing.
The number of human remains still buried on the site is unknown.
Human remains have been found at a work site in a suburban front yard at a home in West Hobart.
Excavation workers made the grisly discovery late yesterday afternoon while working on the foundations of a home in Hill Street.
Police said the incident was not suspicious, because the site was once a cemetery for the Wesley Uniting Church, with the last burial in 1872.
The identity of the deceased person is unknown.
Workers said they were adjusting the home’s foundation piers when they came across a skull.
The remains were about 1.5 metres below the ground, and about 60 centimetres below the foundation of the home.
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