Captain Ballards Grave is a heritage-listed burial place at

Home Island Home Island, also known locally as Pulu Selma, is one of only two permanently-inhabited islands of the 26 islands of the South Keeling Islands of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian external territory in the central-eastern Indian ...

Cocos (Keeling) Islands The Cocos (Keeling) Islands (), officially the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands (; ), are an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean, comprising a small archipelago approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka and rel ...

, Australia. It was added to the

Australian Commonwealth Heritage List The Commonwealth Heritage List is a heritage register established in 2003, which lists places under the control of the Australian government, on land or in waters directly owned by the Crown (in Australia, the Crown in right of the Commonwealth ...

on 22 June 2004.

History

Captain Ballard is reported to have been an early settler who lived on Home Island in the mid-nineteenth century. He lived with his family on the Island. His two children, Dick and Maria were lost from the shores of the island known as Pulu Maria, which was apparently named after his daughter. Captain Ballard and his dog were buried south east of the copra sheds on Home Island.

Description

There are two brick edged graves, one for a man and the other grave is that of a dog. The larger grave has a timber headstone. Captain Ballard's grave is a rare example of a Western style, late nineteenth century European settler's grave. In 1996 the bricks of the graves were broken-up and there was vegetation growing through the plots. The timber headstones had collapsed and were decaying. The site is hidden and hard to locate. The location should be professionally surveyed and plotted. The site should be protected from encroachment by adjacent dumping grounds. The collapsed timber headstone requires urgent retrieval and conservation before loss or further decay,

brickwork Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called '' courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by ...

edges stabilised and intruding vegetation cleared.

Heritage listing

Captain Ballard's Grave is significant as evidence of the

Clunies-Ross family The Clunies-Ross family were the original settlers of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a small archipelago in the Indian Ocean. From 1827 to 1978, the family ruled the previously uninhabited islands as a private fiefdom, initially as ''terra nullius'' ...

's occupation of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the nineteenth century and their entrepreneurial activity in establishing a supply depot for the shipment of spices, coffee and other supplies. Captain Ballard and his family lived on Home Island in the mid-nineteenth century and were early European settlers. His two children, Dick and Maria, feature in the local history of Home Island because they were lost on the shores of the island known as Pulu Maria.

References

Bibliography

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Attribution

{{AHD-CC, name=Captain Ballards Grave, fileNo=9/04/001/0028, id=105361, year=2019, accessdate=15 May 2019 Commonwealth Heritage List places in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Home Island Burials in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Articles incorporating text from the Australian Heritage Database