Local volunteers dig graves and look after small country cemeteries
YOU couldn’t ask for a better launch into eternal life than from a grave dug by members of your local community
YOU couldn’t ask for a better launch into eternal life than from a grave dug by members of your local community.
That’s what you get if you or your loved one are buried at some of the hundreds of small country cemeteries run by a dedicated band of community volunteers.
At the Katandra and Murrayville cemeteries, it’s the local football club that mans the digger and the shovels to prepare your final resting place.
Members of the Katandra Kats and Murrayville Bulldogs have been digging the graves for decades, with the burial fee going towards the clubs’ fundraising.
Katandra cemetery trust volunteer Kevin Teague said usually there were just three or four burials a year, but 2018 had been a busy year with nine funerals.
Katandra and Murrayville are not the only cemeteries where you get such personal service.
At Cowangie in the Mallee a regular group of volunteers do the honours.
Jill Beer, of the Cowangie cemetery trust, said despite the sadness of the occasion it was something of a social event when the men get together to dig the grave and swap stories about the deceased.
At Underbool, they get in a contractor from Ouyen to dig the graves but trustees Neil Jackson and Tom Sprigg fill them in after the funeral to save the contractor making a return trip.
Mr Teague, Mr Sprigg and Ms Beer are some of the hundreds of dedicated volunteers around the state who make up the 400 or so cemetery trusts that look after their local cemeteries and organise for the burial of their communities’ deceased.
While bigger cemeteries in regional cities are professionally run, the smaller cemeteries, which may handle only three or four burials a year, are run by volunteers.
Tom’s wife, Merelyn, said organising the grave was just one of many tasks that fall to the trust members, including maintenance, cleaning, gardening, organising the fitting of plaques and headstones, and keeping records.
“One of our volunteers is 80 and comes out to the cemetery before a funeral and rakes everything to make it all neat and another of our volunteers regularly waters the lawn and tidies the gardens,” Mrs Sprigg said.
Mr Teague has been involved with the Katandra cemetery since he dug his first grave at the age of 17.
He takes great pride and care in preparing a grave, creating a neat coffin-shaped hole and then lining the bottom with straw to hide the soil.
He even takes away the mound of dirt until the funeral is over to keep the site tidy.
“We’re about looking after our community and are very proud of our patch,” Mr Teague said.
Cemeteries and Crematoria Association of Victoria president David Crowe said it was fantastic the work these hundreds of volunteers took on.
“They go way above and beyond the call of duty and perform an extremely important role for their communities,” Mr Crowe said
“They should be very proud of what they do.”
Unlike many city cemeteries, which are fast running out of room as populations boom, many country cemeteries still have plenty of final resting places.
At Underbool the cemetery covers 5ha and half of that is empty. “We won’t be full any time soon,” Mrs Sprigg said.
‘No one knew it was coming’: Tongala cow abattoir shuts
The livestock industry and local community have reacted to Greenham’s closure of its Tongala cow processing plant.
Victorians want to feel guilt-free about eating meat
Research – to guide a Victorian Government-funded pro-agriculture campaign – has revealed how consumers feel about the state’s farmers and what issues need to be addressed.