Heatherton cemetery on hold as Cheltenham and Brighton cemeteries near capacity
FIVE cemeteries in Melbourne’s south are almost full to capacity — but a decision on whether to build a new one in Kingston is on hold until 2018.
The Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust said grave availability at Cheltenham, Dandenong, Brighton, Melbourne and St Kilda had “virtually ended”.
However, a proposal made last year to turn a 130ha parcel of Kingston’s green wedge into a memorial park has not been given the green light.
The State Government said it would not assess the plan before the outcome of a study on where future memorial parks were needed.
Parliamentary Secretary for Health Mary-Anne Thomas said planning for new cemeteries needed to account for demographic changes and be aligned with planning for housing, transport, agriculture and employment.
“While this important work is underway, the government will not assess or make decisions on any proposals to acquire large areas of land for cemetery purposes,” Ms Thomas said.
“This includes the Kingston Memorial Park proposal.”
The Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust spokesman Allan Craig said following a detailed feasibility study they had put a proposal to government for a memorial park at Heatherton and were happy that “it will be properly considered”.
Mr Craig said there was still 15 years of grave supply at the Springvale Botanical Cemetery (169ha) and 50 years at Bunurong, Dandenong South (120ha).
“Sites at Cheltenham, Dandenong, Brighton, Melbourne and St Kilda are approaching end of saleable life,” Mr Allan said.
He said there was approximately 8,800 cremations and 2,800 burials at southeastern cemeteries in 2015.
The Heatherton land which had been earmarked for the new memorial park is bordered by Heatherton and Boundary Rds and Kingston, Pietro, Madden and Old Dandenong Rds.
Defenders of the South East Green Wedge secretary Barry Ross said it was not an appropriate location for a cemetery and small businesses would suffer.
“You can’t give up a productive market garden for a cemetery,” he said.
Mr Ross said it was an “unsatisfactory state of affairs” that the government had now added to the uncertainty faced by the land owners.
A 2014 Kingston Council report said farmland parcels in the area were too small for market gardening to be economically viable.