Thorak Regional Cemetery in financial trouble after income over-estimated

LITCHFIELD council will have to come to the rescue of Thorak Regional Cemetery, which is rapidly losing money and needs an urgent review of its business model

LITCHFIELD council will have to come to the rescue of Thorak Regional Cemetery, which is rapidly losing money and needs an urgent review of its business model.

The cemetery, which is owned by council but which reports its income separately, will lose an estimated $161,407 this year, wiping out $30,230 in savings and requiring a $131,177 loan from council reserves.

A financial report, delivered to Litchfield council last week showed the disastrous state of the cemetery’s finances.

Income at the cemetery had been over-estimated, and spending has ballooned unexpectedly, the report said.

Among other issues, cemetery management has over-estimated the number of expected deaths this financial year by about 10 per cent.

The report, authored by Litchfield council acting finance manager Karina Gates, argues that a review of operations is “required as a matter of urgency”. “There remains ongoing financial sustainability challenges in operating the Thorak Regional Cemetery,” the report says. “This result is clearly not acceptable.”

The cemetery manager’s report also argues that parts of the cemetery are not meeting the community’s needs.

“There has been a request to expand the capacity (of the chapel) as (mourners) overflow on to the verandas,” manager Derrick Tranter wrote.

“The chapel has a seating capacity of around 220, recent services have been in the range of 300 to 400.”

The cost of extending the chapel is not discussed in the report, nor is the likelihood of it happening, given the cemetery’s financial troubles.

Thorak is the only cemetery in Darwin where new burial plots are available to buy, and houses the Northern Territory’s only crematorium.

Mayor Maree Bredhauer said council was considering a number of options to return the cemetery to profit.