Archaeologists are discovering scores of hidden graves at the cemetery that is the final resting place of the first person to die of the bubonic plague in Australia.
The scientists are using ground-penetrating radar to survey the Third Quarantine Cemetery at North Head in Sydney.
The quarantine station was in operation between the 1830s and 1984, and the cemetery opened in 1881.
Sydney Harbour Foundation Trust heritage architect Libby Bennett said people buried at the site included Sydney residents.
“There are people that lived in Pyrmont and The Rocks that are buried here,” Ms Bennett said.
It is also the final resting place for at least 241 people, who were buried after they died from diseases including influenza, the bubonic plague and smallpox.
Early results suggested the true number of people buried there was much higher.
Among the now unmarked graves is Thomas Riley Dudley — the first person to die from the plague in Australia, in February 1910.
However, the wooden post that once marked his grave is long gone.
Harbour Trust and North Head Sanctuary Foundation founder Jenny Wilson said it was interesting to know the stories of the people buried at the site.
“The first person in the graveyard died from smallpox in 1881,” Ms Wilson said.
“The second person was an Aboriginal guy — he died of smallpox too.”