Grafton High mummy reveals more secrets

By Tim Howard

The existence of a mummifed Egyptian head in the library at Grafton High School is common knowledge for generations of the school’s students.

But when the ABC show, Stuff the British Stole, revealed its existence to the rest of Australia last year, the response was shock and wonder at how such an artefact came to be in the care of a regional high school.

The discovery also ramped up interest in the mummy and in a followup report the ABC has revealed forensic experts have discovered the sex, age and the period in which the person lived.

A forensic Egyptologist from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine and Department of Forensic Medicine, Janet Davey, scanned the mummy in a CT scanner.

The ABC reported Dr Davey’s team combined with the University of Chieti in Italy to discover the mummy was female and had died aged between 50 and 60.

strict formulas,” she told the ABC.

The mummy has been in the school’s possession since 1915, according to note from 1960 which explained that a Grafton doctor, T J Henry bought the mummy while he was a medical student in Edinburgh during the late 19th Century.

But like the mummy itself, the story of how it got to the high school also has twists and turns with suggestions another famous former Graftonian was the source.

Nearly fell off my chair reading the recent NRTimes article on the Green’s Party ticket running for Ballina Shire Council (BSC) in the September elections. In particular, claims by my fellow councillor Kiri Dicker that she has “sat by and watched this Council make some of the worst environmental decisions in its history.”

It’s worth noting that after extensive community consultation, BSC adopted a comprehensive new Biodiversity Strategy in June 2023 to protect and enhance our environmental values.

They even had the gall to criticise Mayor Sharon Cadwallader for using her casting vote to ensure the cooperative approach was passed. If Cr Dicker has suddenly had a change of heart with regard to the complete disregard for local farmers shown by the Ballina Greens over the past year, then that is certainly to be welcomed. I will believe it when I see it.

Flecks of gold leaf attached to the head put the mummy in the GrecoRoman period of Egypt, roughly between the time of Alexander the Great in 332BC to the Roman occupation of Egypt and the early Christian period, around 395CE.

Dr Davey told the ABC the quality of the mummifcation, including the full removal of the brain – a process known as excerebration – plus the presence of gold leaf showed the woman came from a wealthy family.

The data from the CT scan encouraged Grafton High to fund a reconstruction based on the data from the scan and put a face to the mystery.

The CT data was sent to forensic toxicologist Matthew Di Rago, at VIFM, who created a 3D print of the skull.

A forensic sculptor at VIFM, Jennifer Mann, took over and she was able to make a complete “forensic facial reconstruction” sculpture.

“[It] involves doing a portrait in reverse — so in effect, starting with a skull, and putting all of the musculature on, and then having to recreate the face based on very

Another version has the mummy coming from Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, a local who became one of the world’s foremost Egyptologists in the early 20th century.

He revolutionised the study of ancient mummies using X-rays to reveal their secrets without disturbing them.

When the tomb of Tutankhamen was discovered, he was responsible for the examination of the preserved body.

Grafton High School was contacted for information, but did not reply.

Councillor Dicker was the only councillor not to support it.

Cr Dicker goes on to say that “Greens on council have a long history of pioneering rural landholder programs that support landowners to protect and expand native vegetation.” That may be the case with regard to the Lismore Greens, however when I and my fellow independent councillors tried to get BSC to adopt Conservation Zones on farms modelled on the successful Lismore Council Rural Landholders initiative, the radical Ballina Greens including Cr Dicker and Jeff Johnson opposed it time and time again.

Cr Dicker also seems to have had a memory lapse in her comment, “If you vote for the Greens we’ll ensure land is used to build affordable rental housing for local workers.” In February this year Ballina Shire councillors voted for a history-making affordable housing scheme, giving the go-ahead for stage one of a council-owned unit complex at Wollongbar. The units will be made available for rent to critical workers who can’t get accommodation now. Once again, Cr Dicker was the only councillor to vote against the proposal. It seems the Greens will say just about anything in their quest to take complete control of Ballina Shire Council this September.

Rod Bruem, Independent Councillor, Ballina