Roger was buried in an unmarked grave. His family wasn’t told for years

Endless rows of bouquet-adorned marble with names and legacies carved in can be seen at a Sydney cemetery.

Loving tributes to mothers, fathers, daughters and sons can be read. But wedged between them, is a stretch of grass, with no plaques or markers.

You wouldn't know it was the final resting place of Roger Davies. 

Roger was a rough sleeper who died in Sydney in 2012.

But it wasn't until 2017 that his family in Adelaide was told he had been buried at Australia's largest cemetery at Rookwood in Sydney's west.

For Chantel Dubsky, it was too late to bring her big brother home. 

“We should have been notified straight away, they knew that he had family in Adelaide,” Dubsky said.

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“He could have been brought back to Adelaide, cremated and put with his mother and uncle, and grandparents.

“He'll never be given that opportunity because there's nothing to bring back.”

Roger's family left without a proper place to pay their respects. 

“Our reactions were just devastated,” nephew James Dubsky said.

“We still can’t put words to what our government and the NSW government has done to us.”

Roger is one of hundreds buried in so-called "pauper's graves" at Rookwood.

People who were left to NSW Health to deal with - most of them homeless, some even war veterans, sharing plots without a marker.

They are shoe horned between other headstones and pathways. 

Reverend Bill Crews has dedicated his life to helping the less fortunate and has been fighting this system for decades. 

“Just imagine the number of people who have innocently just walked over it all,” Crews said.

“They bury them on the side of the road or in areas where they can't sell the land, it’s that simple.

“A lot of these people in these graves here would have been born in love and excitement and hope for the future.

“And this is where they've ended up, it's just not right, is it?

“We’ve found returned service people, a lot of them they’ve done lots of things and something’s gone wrong in their lives.

“Just one unfortunate incident, and here they are.”

His foundation helps fund funeral services for those who can't afford it but on at least three occasions NSW Health didn't ask.

“Because I’m terrified that our people will end up like this,”

“When we know somebody in our restaurant or whichever who died, we pay for the funeral.

“If we're not looking after people here at this, people will think, ‘well will the government look after me?’”

NSW Health also didn’t contact the Department of Veterans Affairs.

It says “eligible veterans may receive an official commemoration in recognition of their service. This may include the provision of a bronze plaque at a physical memorial.”

DVA said it “has not been approached to help fund the burials of destitute persons since 2020,” but at least two war veterans have been buried in this way since then.

The most vulnerable people being buried like this is nothing new nor is the pledge to fix it.

Back in 2013, the NSW Coalition government promised this situation wouldn't happen again. 

But 13 years later, Labor is having to do the same.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park promises after all these years he will do better. 

“I’m going to work through it in a methodical way, I’m not going to rush this, but people can rest assured I’m not happy with the current situation,” Park said.

But for many, it's too little too late. 

“I have five children who will never get to know their uncle,” Chantel Dubsky said.

“There will never be a special site for him for them to go to, because there will always be this horrendous story behind it.” 

For Reverend Bill, he will believe it when he sees it. 

“I’m going to have my ashes scattered in the sea, ‘cause I don't want to end up like this,” Crews said.