Cemeteries are landscapes of the dead, places in which we hide our memories for the living to stumble across while they’re stretching their legs in small country towns. Some time ago I stumbled across a remarkable memory at Camperdown, in Victoria’s Western District. Or, rather, it loomed over me. Erected in the late 1880s, the seven-metre obelisk of grey granite marked the burial place of Wombeetch Puyuun, or Oombete Pooyan, known locally as Camperdown George, who was believed at the time to be the last surviving Djargurd wurrung person.

Its front inscription read: ‘In memory of the Aborigines of this district. Here lies the body of the Chief Wombeetch Puyuun and last of the local tribes.’ The two dates inscribed on the obelisk, ‘1840–1883’, indicate the 43 years it took Europeans to displace the Djargurd wurrung from the area.