Teenager built homemade radar to find buried bulls on grandfather’s farm; now Australian ‘Grave Hunter’ has uncovered more than 600 lost graves

As a teenager, Dave Hunter built a rudimentary radar device to locate buried bulls on his grandfather’s farm. Decades later, that childhood experiment has evolved into a career helping communities find forgotten burial sites without disturbing the ground. His latest project has helped an outback council in Australia uncover 658 previously unmarked graves across two cemeteries in far-west New South Wales.Hunter, known as ‘Dave the Grave Hunter’, was contracted by the Central Darling Shire Council in July 2025 to investigate possible lost graves at the Menindee and White Cliffs cemeteries. Using specialist ground-penetrating radar equipment, his company, Hunter Geophysics, identified more than 300 burial sites at each location. A local report put the final tally at 338 graves at White Cliffs and 320 at Menindee. The project was completed in September 2026, according to the council.The discoveries were made without digging up the sites. Instead, Hunter pushed a machine resembling a lawn mower across the cemetery grounds, scanning the soil for signs of old burial pits. The findings have allowed the council to mark and protect places that had gradually disappeared from records or lost their visible markers.From buried bulls to forgotten gravesHunter’s interest in what lies beneath the ground began on his grandfather’s farm in Rushworth, northern Victoria.