A council alderman is calling for a forgotten cemetery believed to hold some of Katherine's first recorded deaths to be preserved.
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"It is a way to ensure people are buried with dignity," alderman Toni Tapp Coutts said.
On the banks of the Katherine River, just past the hospital is an abandoned cemetery feared to be eroding away.
More than 30 of the first recorded deaths in Katherine have been linked to the unmarked area, known to many as the Knotts Crossing cemetery, and despite withstanding two devastating floods in 1998 and 2006, the bodies are believed to still remain.
"There is no official area and no official grave sites, but people in the community have been talking about a grave site and this has got to be it," Mrs Tapp Coutts said.
She said she "wants it sorted" and has asked Katherine Town Council to budget for a fence and plaque.
Katherine resident Bruce Francais first raised the issue last year in October, and has since been asking the council to take action.
The deaths date back to 1873, before Katherine became a gazetted town.
"Jonas Gustav Larsen, aged 22, a labourer at the Telegraph Station near the Katherine River Crossing... is assumed to be the first burial (in 1873) near the crossing up towards the Telegraph Station," Katherine Museum documents state.
James Carmody died, aged 27, while fishing in the Katherine River on January 23, 1889.
Mr E. Beagley, aged 35, is believed to have died at Maude Creek on August 6, 1903 and buried at the Knotts Crossing site following a long battle with malaria. And Samuel Mackay "was drowned in the Katherine River on February 26, 1906".
The document also sites the death of a young boy just four years old, who died on October 1, 1880.
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"There have been deaths in rivers, horse falls, disease, it was a tough life back then," Mrs Tapp Coutts said.
"I wanted to establish exactly where the cemetery was and commemorate the people who are buried there. It is an important part of the town's history."
As it stands today, the small site looks nothing like a cemetery. There have been speculation bones have been spotted, Mrs Tapp Coutts said, but the claims have been unsubstantiated.
A rickety old fence lines the perimeter and two warning signs keep people out.
But how they got there remains a mystery.
Even Pancho Jack, the Katherine Town Council's works manager who oversaw nearly all projects in the town during his time from 1984 to about 2013, does not have a clue.
"We knew not to touch it, it was people's resting place," Mr Jack said.
"I was aware it existed, and it is not the only one, but as far as I know the council didn't put up the fence while I was there."
Mrs Tapp Coutts said she hopes a new fence, built to withstand flooding, as well as a plaque with names and dates of the deceased will be established in 2020.
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