Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council has abandoned plans for a new memorial park near Googong. Photo: Supplied.
Plans for a new memorial park intended to future-proof cemetery capacity in southeast NSW have been laid to rest.
At its latest meeting, Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council (QPRC) voted unanimously to abandon plans for a cemetery and memorial park, which was set to be located south of Googong.
In 2009, Queanbeyan City Council started planning for a new memorial park and council eventually purchased land at the intersection of Old Cooma Road and Burra Road in 2017.
The land has since been rezoned to allow for the cemetery’s construction.
While the agenda recommended that work stop on the chosen site and council withdraw its State Significant Development Application, Mayor Kenrick Winchester moved an alternate recommendation.
It called on council to also prepare a report on short-term options for Queanbeyan region internments and one on how the site could be used.
Mayor Winchester hoped the changed approach would give clarity to the community.
“We’re going to commence investigating [other] sites, hopefully somewhere between Queanbeyan and Bungendore, because we know Bungendore Cemetery is also going to have capacity issues in the future,” he said.
In October 2024, Queanbeyan–Palerang Regional Council then-urban landscapes manager Tim Geyer told Region that council was “still confident” in their chosen site.
Nearby residents had previously raised concerns with the proposal, saying the area was a floodplain.
A report presented to council’s latest meeting outlined the presence of groundwater throughout much of the site, including near the surface in some areas.
Guidelines state that groundwater should be at or below three meters below ground level in cemeteries.
“The more recent results occurred during a relatively wet period and demonstrated the full extent of groundwater fluctuations,” according to the report.
The report states earlier tests were taken during the “relatively drier period” of 2018 to 2020, while newer tests (taken from September 2020 to the present) revealed fluctuations in the groundwater during wetter climate phases.
Initial work to lower the groundwater level was estimated to cost more than $7 million.
Once those works were carried out, at least 2.8 ha would be available for burial sites.
The proposed site along Burra Road, looking west across the site toward Mount Campbell. Photo: Supplied.
During the meeting, a long-time resident said the initial decision to use the site was made “behind closed doors” and had left her community “traumatised”.
“It has been a very long and hard battle to make council see reason that this proposed landsite was always the wrong decision,” she said.
She said residents weren’t against a cemetery and called on QPRC to choose a Crown Land site for the project.
The meeting also heard that council had already spent more than $4 million (including the cost of purchasing the land) on the proposal.
According to the NSW Planning Portal’s website, the proposal was at the Prepare EIS stage (Environmental Impact Statement).
If it went ahead, the cemetery was expected to have capacity for between 15,000 and 18,000 burial plots.
Original Article published by Claire Sams on About Regional.
