The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, is open to funding further investigations at the Kinchela Aboriginal Boys’ Training Home after the discovery of multiple possible secret or “clandestine” burials on the NSW north coast.
Minns has also vowed to take further action if more potential burial sites at other institutions of the Stolen Generations era are uncovered.
He said he was concerned by Guardian Australia’s reports last week that at least nine “suspicious” possible grave sites had been identified on the grounds of the violent and abusive Kinchela institution.
“We are through, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, engaging with the home,” Minns said. “I’m probably going to let our officials engage with the land council in the first instance, and work out what we can do, whether there’s a need to fund it, taking into consideration that there’s a difference of views.”
He added: “I saw this report and we wanted to make sure we had senior bureaucrats looking into it as soon as possible.”
Minns said the site was no longer owned by the state and said the government needed to engage with the Kempsey land council.
The home was run by the state government from 1924 until 1970. The survivor organisation Kinchela Boys’ Home Aboriginal Corporation has called on the NSW and federal governments to urgently fund further searches of the entire property.
On Monday, the Aboriginal affairs minister, David Harris, said he had been “saddened to learn the survey may have located possible burial sites” at the home and had requested a meeting with the land council and survivors group.
“These are very complex and sensitive issues and I know distressing for all involved,” he said.
“We will work constructively with all parties to map the way forward and those conversations will start this week.
“We support the current investigations started under the previous government and will continue to work within the appropriate cultural protocols while we further investigate and work towards a resolution.
“I have sought advice from the attorney general due to the legal complexity in relation to the report findings and the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.”
As of Wednesday, the meeting was yet to occur.
Minns said he had not yet been informed there were other sites that needed investigation, but would act if he was.
“If it’s drawn to my attention, then of course we’d take action,” he said. “I don’t have a report about other homes, there’s not an ongoing investigation into it.”
The Kinchela sites were identified by experts surveying the area using ground-penetrating radar. The NSW government was already aware of the discovery, having received a report on the survey six months ago.
The report highlighted “high priority anomalies” in the ground at the home, which show “signal patterns that in other contexts have proven to be human burials” and cannot be explained by other information sources.
“Some evidence supports the use of cadaver dogs in finding buried human remains,” the report said.
Last week the federal minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, called for the deeply disturbing claims to be investigated.
