Think you might be buried at Queanbeyan Lawn Cemetery someday? Think again.
It’s not something most us want to plan for, but with recent news that the Queanbeyan General Cemetery is nearing capacity, residents will now need to carefully consider their future burial plans. With just 272 plots available and 100 more planned to be released next year, the Queanbeyan Palerang Council has decided to temporarily pause reservations of plots, imposing a moratorium on sales of pre-purchased Right of Interments at the Queanbeyan General Cemetery.
The council intends to reserve the remaining plots for local residents’ immediate needs and will also honour existing reservations. 1440 plots at the cemetery have already been reserved by the Queanbeyan community.
Director of M.H. O’Rourke Funerals in Queanbeyan Jason Codey told Q News that cremation requests have increased in recent years and may be the way forward,
“Cremations is becoming more and more popular. It’s just become the cheaper option, and people are not so traditional anymore, it’s about 60/40 with burials and cremations at the moment, with a lean towards cremations.
“People that pre-purchased their plots, they’re obviously going to go ahead with a burial, but quite often now if people don’t have a plot, they’ll opt for cremation. Once you get the cremains you can basically do whatever you want, a lot of people take them and sprinkle them on their property”.
Over the years, council has increased the capacity of the cemetery in a number of ways; conducting audits of existing reservations, repurchasing redundant reservations, reclaiming laneways, and removing some unhealthy trees. They say that around 200 plots are required each year to keep up with demand.
Jason Codey, Director of M.H. O’Rourke Funerals Queanbeyan.
‘The Queanbeyan General Cemetery has serviced the Queanbeyan community and surrounds for a long time,” said General Manager Rebecca Ryan.
“Placing new sales of pre-purchase plots into this holding pattern, will ensure remaining plots will be available for the immediate needs of local residents and that we can honour existing reservations”.
The cost of being buried in Queanbeyan is $3781 for a single burial site and $1,036 for an ashes space. Meanwhile, just over the border in the A.C.T. a burial site could cost you upwards of $10,000.
The Queanbeyan Palerang Council said it is exploring all the possibilities to meet needs, “Some open space and a former farm dam on site are now being investigated for infill expansion of the current cemetery area”.
The council has also proposed building a new Memorial Park near Googong. The NSW government has approved a Planning Proposal to rezone the property, allowing the new cemetery to be built with approval.
Headstones on display at the side of family’s home. Photo: Rohan Thomson
The A.C.T. is already providing sustainable burial options to its residents, introducing ‘natural burials’. While this may mean forgoing any formal memorialisation at the grave site, cemetery staff instead plant a small shrub, selected by the family (from an approved list of native species), to help the grave blend into the surrounding bushland. The primary goal is to minimize the environmental impact by allowing the remains to decompose naturally and integrate back into nature.
Further community consultation will be conducted in the coming months as part of the development of the Master Plan for the Memorial Park. Queanbeyan Palerang Regional Council has emphasised that individuals with existing plots at the Queanbeyan General Cemetery are guaranteed their reservations.
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About the Author: Holly Winchester
Part Jennifer Coolidge, part Jennifer Garner (gaudy and geeky), Holly idolises Dolly Parton and Princess Di and loves NRL. When she's not creating killer content, you’ll find Holly at the Maccas drive thru getting her chai latte fix or buying 1990s memorabilia for the walls of her Googong home. Specialist subject: the Woolies carpark.
