Snowy Monaro Regional Council staff member Michele Rogers says council is confident it has room for burials, including at Cooma Cemetery. Photo: Snowy Monaro Regional Council.
A Snowy Monaro cemetery is expanding its burial section to “extend the life” of the facility until a new one can be built.
Snowy Monaro Regional Council (SMRC) manager public health and environment Michele Rogers said a series of upgrades would increase Cooma Cemetery’s space for burials.
“Our cemetery, as it currently stands, would run out of room around 2030,” she said.
“That’s not the monumental section, that’s just the lawn cemetery.
“We don’t get many burials [in the monumental section] so there is still a bit more life in that area, based on our current burial rate.”
In recent years, SMRC cemeteries had an average of 95 burials per year, she said, with “just on half” occurring in Cooma Cemetery.
The expansion works, which started on Monday (12 August), have an estimated cost of $100,000 across the two years.
The first stage will run during this financial year, while a second stage is planned for the next financial year.
“It will take about 12 months to complete each stage,” said Ms Rogers.
Stage one includes preparing an area of the cemetery unsuitable for burials to become additional parking, extension of the cemetery grounds, installation of irrigation infrastructure, trenching and laying of new concrete beams.
Meanwhile, the second stage will include tree planting, grass seeding, installation of an irrigation system and road improvements for an internal road within the cemetery.
“Because all of the works are going to be contained within the cemetery itself, we don’t need to close any roads, which is really good,” she said.
While there are a number of historic graves at Cooma Cemetery, Ms Rogers said they wouldn’t be damaged.
“The works are confined to an area that hasn’t been used and was solely being used for general car parking,” she said.
“[The works will give the new section] the same look as the current lawn cemetery and just extend into the new section, which is part of the approved area,” she said.
Ms Rogers said council would also keep moving forward with plans to build a new cemetery for the Snowy Monaro region.
“We’ve already done a concept plan, which went out for comment before COVID hit,” Ms Rogers said.
“In the next couple of years, we’ll be looking at doing full [and] detailed works on those.
“The idea is that as this cemetery [Cooma Cemetery] reaches its life expectancy of around 2040, stage one of our new cemetery will be completed.
“We’ll have a nice, smooth transition from one site to the new one.”
Ms Rogers said SMRC was confident with the capacities of other cemeteries in the region.
“We’re not worried about their life expectancies [other cemeteries in the Snowy Monaro local government area]. We do keep an eye on those numbers,” she said.
“There’s a number of sites with a large amount of room. We have a section, for example, in Bombala, that hasn’t been used and we can expand into.”
More information about cemetery services in the Snowy Monaro region can be found on council’s website.
SMRC can also be contacted with any questions about the Cooma Cemetery upgrades by emailing [email protected] or by calling the cemetery services team on 1300 345 345.
Loading ...
