Gympie cemetery a dumping ground for rubbish, playground for hoons

Piles of dumped rubbish and evidence of hooning on the tended lawns of the Gympie cemetery are being investigated with the help of a vital and revealing clue the culprits failed to get rid of.

Photos of the Gympie cemetery being treated as a dumping ground and a hooning hotspot have surfaced on social media.

The discovery was reported to Gympie Regional Council after it was seen by councillor Bruce Devereaux during a routine meeting with the Cemetery Trust committee.

“Donuts and dumping aren’t words which should be associated with our town’s local cemetery,” Mr Devereaux posted when he shared the photos on social media.

The rubbish was dumped and strewn near a fence line near where the cemetery backs on to the Gympie Waste Facility at Bonnick Rd, Mr Devereaux said. The burnouts were a further along, closer to Corella Rd.

The rubbish had escaped from black plastic bag and included everything from cereal boxes to tupperware containers; while burnouts on the grass showed skids and doughnuts.

NO graves or plots were impacted.

Mr Devereaux said the way the cemetery was being treated was “disappointing”, especially because cemetery staff were left to clean up the mess.

Mr Devereaux said hoons were known to frequent the Gympie cemetery, but appeared to have been bogged at another spot before they moved on to this new area near the rubbish.

“There’s been a lot of hooning around town,” he said.

“We hear them and they go screaming past and it’s too late to take a photo or anything at night.”

Councillor Bruce Devereaux discovered the rubbish during a routine meeting with the Gympie Cemetery Trust.

“I had no idea they were going down and tearing up the grass at the cemetery until Thursday.”

Two mattresses were also been dumped at the cemetery previously, which the committee were left to remove and take to the dump themselves.

This time, however, an incriminating clue was left behind in the garbage in the form of a letter with a name and address.

Mr Devereaux said this was being followed up by council, but there had been no progress in tracking down the culprits.

The Gympie Times has reached out to the Gympie Cemetery Trust for further comment.