Planning under way for Casino cemetery expansion
More burial sites may not be needed for many years, but the council is already undertaking important preliminary works.
Lismore
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A development application currently being considered by Richmond Valley Council is the first step to the eventual expansion of the Namoona Lawn Cemetery at Casino.
The DA is for a 2.4ha parcel of vacant land at the cemetery site on Reynolds Rd.
This area is about 2m lower than the established area of the cemetery and needs to be filled so it can be used to expand the cemetery in the coming years.
The council's director of infrastructure and environment, Angela Jones, said while the technical description of the work "could ring alarm bells", it was a relatively simple, yet highly monitored, process.
"The plan is, operationally, to fill the land so we can use it in the future as a cemetery," she said.
"What the DA seeks to get approval for is to get compliant fill material, from roadside works or a quarry for example, to fill the site to a suitable level.
"It's clean fill we're talking about, and there are statutory requirements as to the quality of the fill we can use.
"There will be testing of the fill ‒ it absolutely won't be rubbish or asbestos or anything like that."
These works will have no effect on the existing established cemetery area.
While the expansion of the Namoona Lawn Cemetery is still "a fair few years off", Ms Jones said current construction and building activity in the area meant there was an opportunity to use the fill from those projects.
"The work we do now will provide a quality cemetery for the residents of Casino and the Richmond Valley well into the future," she said.
For more information about the DA, visit the council's website.
The cemetery was consecrated and dedicated in 1961, on land that was occupied as an internment camp during World War II.
The Casino Victory Camp housed Dutch and Indonesians who had escaped Indonesia prior to the Japanese invasion.
Remnants of the Camp Victory buildings remain on land surrounding the cemetery.
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