BURIAL CAIRNS
For cultural respect purposes these areas on Bassendean have not been photographed or filmed.
burial cairns
Burial Cairns (burial mounds)
Are places where people lived over long periods of time. Mounds often contain charcoal, burnt clay or stone heat retainers from cooking ovens, animal bones, shells, stone tools and, sometimes, Aboriginal burials.
circular or oval shape
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Often less than 50 cm high and 10 m wide, though sometimes much larger
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Dark (often black) and sometimes greasy sediment
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Lumps of burnt clay or stone and small fragments of charcoal often present
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Shells, animal bones, stone tools and human burials sometimes present
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Rabbit burrows present
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Usually near rivers, lakes or swamps but occasionally some distance from water. Mounds often occur on floodplains and the banks of watercourses. They are also found on dunes and sometimes among rock outcrops on higher ground.
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Nimula in itself is a testimony to the Old Ucumble (Jukenbukl) people's ingenuity in selecting such an area to ensure survival of burial mounds from flood and water level mitigation.
This needs to be further approached in management, given that there are dams built in certain places of elevation capturing water. The Old People had already provided such wetland drainage and swales within the mounds sufficiently enough to capture water capacity to fill holding points. In the past our military style, aid and now the burial places are prevented from inundation, ruin and erosion.