I'm in Adelaide, so can't claim to be an expert but it seems to me that the action in Victoria is being taken by the STATE government and the local government (in this case) has nothing to do with it. FYI here in Adelaide about 35 years ago we had a local pioneer cemetery "converted" to a park less than twenty years after the last burial. This was at the instigation of the LOCAL government council & rubber stamped by the State government. In another case a local Protestant church removed all the headstones from the churchyard cemetery and stored them under the floor of a church building. A great difficulty arises when a cemetery is allowed to become an eyesore and when some authority wants to clean it up there are screams from people with ancestors in the cemetery but those same people have usually done little or nothing to stop the deterioration of the place before hand. Look what happened to the Hill Street Burial Ground in Hobart and that was 77 years ago! There must be many many others. We, with an interest in cemetereies, MUST ensure that the churches, local or state governments and others retain monies received for burials for the continious maintenance of the cemeteries and that those monies are NOT transferred for other uses or end up in "consolidated revenue" with great difficulty getting any funds from consolidated revenue when needed later. Another case in S.A. was when a local council used accumulated funds from the cemetery to build a swimming pool! Sorry about the length of this. I don't get on my soap box all that often!! Chris -----Original Message----- From: Raymond W Henderson [mailto:batie@bigpond.net.au] Sent: Tuesday, 9 September 2003 8:43 AM To: AUSTRALIA-CEMETERIES-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [[AUS-CEM]] Re: [[AUS-CEM]] Re: [[AUS-CEM]] Final Resting Places for our Ancestors It seems that it's local Government in Victoria only, but who knows with this Government they do as they like any rate. Regards, Ray. ~O^O~ ----- Original Message ----- From: "carol werner" <carola42@bigpond.com> To: <AUSTRALIA-CEMETERIES-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 8:41 AM Subject: [[AUS-CEM]] Re: [[AUS-CEM]] Final Resting Places for our Ancestors Hi Ray is this the local govt in Victoria trying to do this?? or is it at federal level,pretty ordinary whichever,nothing seems sacred anymore. Will support the letters of you all,as the time will come if allowed to get away with this, it will become the norm, leaving families with no say at all,as to what happens to loved ones. --- Original Message ----- From: "Raymond W Henderson" <batie@bigpond.net.au> To: <AUSTRALIA-CEMETERIES-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 6:56 PM Subject: [[AUS-CEM]] Final Resting Places for our Ancestors > I'm sorry Ms Pike, don't you think the Government has damaged the face > of Victoria enough all ready? First you sell off the railways, then you sell off the S.E.C then the Gas and part of Telstra local government buildings and now you want to claim back our final resting places! > > No Ms Pike, no it's not on just goes to show what little respect you > have in desecrating our ancestors final resting places, ask your own family how they feel in having your families graves bulldozed over? > > Raymond W. Henderson > Historian > > > --- > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.514 / Virus Database: 312 - Release Date: 8/28/03 > > > ==== AUSTRALIA-CEMETERIES Mailing List ==== > ================================================================== > Cemetery Records on line:- > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~batman/ > ================================================================== > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy > records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > ==== AUSTRALIA-CEMETERIES Mailing List ==== More information can be found on our Web Page for Cemetery Listings by state and addresses for Cemeteries also. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~batman/ ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.515 / Virus Database: 313 - Release Date: 9/1/03 ==== AUSTRALIA-CEMETERIES Mailing List ==== ================================================================== Cemetery Records on line:- http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~batman/ ================================================================== ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237