Fawkner Cemetery trust announces plans to branching out another 45ha

Expanding a cemetery means more graves, right? Wrong. Fawkner Cemetery is branching out a further 45ha — but don’t expect to see more rows of headstones.

The Fawkner Memorial Park extension will be about open space, not concrete.

Creating a modern cemetery fit for 50,000 people requires some branching out.

The Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust has designed a 45ha expansion to Northern Memorial Park in Fawkner.

And under the $150 million plan open space will be created, not room for more headstones.

About 40,000 trees will be planted and a water feature and lake to maintain the bush plains where about eight kangaroos — Moreland’s only kangaroo mob — live.

There won’t be more gravestone rows like this one, which is the resting place of gunned-down gangster Alphonse Gangitano.

Public tastes had changed from monument-based cemeteries, the cemetery trust’s strategic planning and infrastructure director Pelagia Markogiannakis said

“Park settings and plaques are growing in popularity as well as what we call living legacy trees, where we insert ashes and loved ones can watch the trees grow,” she said.

“We make up about 10 per cent of Moreland’s open space … with less concrete we will have less carbon emissions.”

The designs include fences for the kangaroos and other wildlife to exit the cemetery grounds safely, instead of through the current wire fence.

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With the addition of a cafe, Ms Markogiannakis said she wanted to return to the days in the early 1900s when the cemetery was a popular spot for a day trip.

The cemetery was initially designed by Charles Heath — who is buried there — because of fears in the 1890s that Melbourne’s growth was outpacing cemetery space.

Secrets of the soil

First opened in 1906, 220 graves were relocated from the Old Melbourne Cemetery to Fawkner in the 1920s.

Funeral parties travelled in mortuary trains from Flinders Street Station to Fawkner

Melbourne founder John Batman is interred there, as are numerous gangsters including Mark ‘Chopper’ Read and Alphonse Gangitano.

The expansion is due to be complete by 2038.

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