McCullough laid to rest on Norfolk

BURNT PINE – Australian author Colleen McCullough has been farewelled at a modest graveside service on Norfolk Island.

About 200 residents and visitors braved steady rain on Wednesday to pay their respects to the neuroscientist-turned-author, who died in hospital last week aged 77.

McCullough, who shot to fame with her 1977 novel ‘The Thorn Birds’, was remembered as a brilliant mind who shunned pretence and staunchly defended her south Pacific home of more than three decades.

Her close friend Reverend Rebecca West led proceedings at the island’s historic oceanside cemetery.

Another longtime friend, Joseph Merlino, delivered the eulogy, and McCullough’s brother-in-law Adrian Robinson delivered messages from friends and family.

Chief Minister Lisle Snell delivered a tribute before another friend, German soprano Bruni Heinemann performed ‘Kyrie, Angelo di Dio’.

“The service was simple and nice,” Snell told AAP. “She was a very unpretentious person, and she made it known she didn’t want any pomp or ceremony.

“She was of great benefit to this island, and she will be sadly missed.”

In line with Norfolk Island tradition, family and friends earlier accompanied McCullough’s coffin in a procession through the island’s hills from the main town of Burnt Pine to the cemetery where she was buried.

McCullough lived on Norfolk for more than 30 years, and married local Ric Robinson in 1984.

Before the writing success, she founded a neurophysiology department at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital, and spent 10 years as a researcher at Yale University in the US.

She was laid to rest in a Robinson family plot.