Information about the removal of items from the Tamborine Mountain Cemetery

Council's Controlled Cemeteries Policy is similar to those in place by other local governments around Australia and the latest policy has been in place for 11 years and is provided in all our correspondence with the community about gravesites.

The policy's aim is to create safe, pleasant, neat cemeteries that are places of peace, tranquillity and contemplation for the whole community whilst taking into consideration the requirements of each individual cemetery.

Policies aren't people, and Council's employees take great care in corresponding and supporting families through the process of having their loved ones interred in a Council controlled cemetery.

We provide advance notice, as sensitively as possible, when there are items at a gravesite that don't meet Council's policy, and give families time to remove, rectify or apply to have specific memorials in place. Extensions of time are often granted on compassionate grounds.

In relation to the recent removal of items and plants from gravesites at the Tamborine Mountain Cemetery, Council has sensitively communicated with both families who have been the focus of recent media reports on numerous occasions over recent months, and provided multiple extensions of time on compassionate grounds.

In relation to the removal of in-ground plantings and a bricked garden bed of one of the families, Council has been in contact with the family since September 2020 and provided information about the application process and a number of options in regards to an alternative to in-ground plantings. After several extensions, we asked the family to nominate a timeframe to remove the brickwork and in-ground plantings, without response.

In relation to the removal of items and in-ground plantings at the second family's gravesite, Council has been in regular contact with the family and representatives of the family since February 2020, and on compassionate grounds provided multiple extensions of time to remove items.

Council wishes to respect the families' privacy and grief by not sharing any further details of our correspondence on these sensitive matters.

Comparison to other gravesites is difficult, because Council will be at a different timeframes in its communication with families about Council's policy, and those families will also be given the appropriate time to remove, rectify or apply to have specific memorials in place.

For more information, please see our Council Controlled Cemeteries Policy