Queenscliff cemetery plans expansion to extend operating life
A Bellarine cemetery will have its operational lifespan extended if plans lodged with council are given the green light.
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A Bellarine cemetery will have its operational lifespan extended if plans lodged with council are given the green light.
Without the proposed extension at Queenscliff’s seaside cemetery it would only be able to service the ageing municipality for 15 more years.
About 35 burials are performed on average each year.
Geelong Cemeteries Trust, which oversees the site, has lodged plans with the Borough of Queenscliffe.
The plans would see a currently unused 6500 sqm field on the site developed to increase the burial capacity by 600.
The expansion would involve roads, pathways, retaining walls and landscaping works with minimal buildings other than a low scale shelter.
Trust chief executive Dean Matthews said the increased number of burial sites was essential to service the community.
“If you look at the demographics of the area, about 70 per cent prefer burial than cremation,” he said.
“That’s the opposite compared to the rest of the area.
“So in other words, a lot of that generation would prefer to be buried, so that’s why we look to try to get as much as we can out of the sites we have.”
The ‘Addy reported last year that the Borough of Queensliffe was oldest municipality in the country, with the average age a tad over 64 years.
Mr Matthews said some of the land at the cemetery would have to be raised as part of the expansion.
“The reason we want to raise it is because otherwise the sea levels are only within a metre of the current land level,” he said.
“If you bury someone, you don’t want to be digging holes to try and bury someone and it’s full of water.”
The trust is currently in the process of turning a massive plot of land on the Bellarine Highway in Marcus Hill into its Bellarine Memorial Park, which is set to be completed in 18 months.
The trust estimates the new park will service the area for 150 years.
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