THE historic Werribee Cemetery will finally be given a facelift.
Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, which took control of Werribee Cemetery in March 2010 after a merger of 18 cemeteries across Melbourne, will spend $170,000 improving infrastructure and landscaping at the 150-year-old site. A machinery shed, cemetery office and mausoleum will also be refurbished.
The 5.5-hectare cemetery dates back to the mid-19th century, with its earliest graves dating between 1850 and 1865.
As reported by the Weekly, the trust has been heavily criticised in recent years for its management of the cemetery, with visitors complaining about overgrowth, sunken graves and muddy paths.
GMCT’s western suburbs client services manager, Tanya Tabone, said the biggest task would be the sealing of the cemetery’s many roads and paths, most of which were covered in loose gravel. “Replanting, pruning and botanical landscaping will be undertaken throughout the cemetery, while landscaping work will be carried out adjacent to the cemetery office building with the proposal to include a rose garden and lawn area.”
Vilma Brunato, who last year complained to the trust about the condition of the cemetery after discovering a hole in her mother’s grave, welcomed news of the upgrade.
“We hope they mean it when they say they are going to seal the roads and paths and plant new flowers.”
Ms Tabone said building refurbishments were expected to be completed this month while roads and paths would be resealed by spring, weather permitting. Upgrades to the cemetery’s toilets were likely to be included in an October funding announcement.
A fire in the 1950s at the cemetery’s records office destroyed valuable historic volumes which held the details of burials and plot locations between the cemetery’s official establishment on October 10, 1864 and 1909.
