New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL, NEWCASTLE, CEMETERY ACT 1966 - SECT 6

6 Removal of human remains, headstones etc

(1) Subject to subsections two and three of this section the Council shall, as soon as practicable after the commencement of this Act:

(a) compile an index plan and register of the names of and other relevant information in respect of persons who are buried in or whose ashes have been placed in or on the lands described in the First and Second Schedules to this Act, so far as those names and that information can by reasonable diligence be obtained, and deposit and maintain the plan and register at the Newcastle City Hall so as to be available for inspection by any interested person from time to time,

(b) furnish a certified copy of the plan and register to the Minister and to the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle,

(c) furnish a certified copy of the plan and register to the Mitchell Library, Sydney, where it shall be maintained so as to be available for inspection by any interested person from time to time,

(d) remove all headstones without legible inscriptions thereon and other surface structures from the said lands and dispose of them in a manner agreed upon by the Council and the Corporate Trustees,

(e) in a manner agreed upon by the Council and the Corporate Trustees:

(i) preserve in their existing positions, or remove and preserve in new positions, on the land described in the First Schedule to this Act, all headstones on that land, other than those referred to in paragraph (d) of this subsection, and

(ii) remove all headstones, other than those referred to in paragraph (d) of this subsection, from the land described in the Second Schedule to this Act and preserve them on the land described in the First Schedule to this Act,

(f) plant the land described in the First Schedule to this Act with trees, shrubs, lawns and flowers and otherwise improve it for a rest park and garden area,

(g) erect a series of dwarf walls forming a terraced bank north-easterly from the south-western boundary of the land described in the First Schedule to this Act of a design to be agreed upon by the Council and the Corporate Trustees,

(h) erect a fence on the eastern and western boundaries of the land described in the First Schedule to this Act of a design to be agreed upon by the Council and the Corporate Trustees,

(i) provide pedestrian access from the land described in the First Schedule to this Act through the south-western boundary of that land, across the land described in the Second Schedule to this Act, to the Cathedral lands, and

(j) erect a memorial of a design to be approved of by the Minister and in a position on the land described in the First Schedule to this Act as agreed upon by the Council and the Corporate Trustees to indicate the sacred nature of the area and that the plan and register referred to in paragraph (a) of this subsection may be inspected at the Newcastle City Hall and a copy of the plan and register at the Mitchell Library, Sydney.

(2) At least three months before any headstones or other surface structures in respect of any person who is buried in or whose ashes have been placed in or on the land described in the First or Second Schedule to this Act are removed by the Council pursuant to paragraph (d) or (e) of subsection one of this section, an advertisement of the intention to remove them and drawing attention to the right conferred by subsection three of this section on the representatives or persons claiming to be representatives referred to in the said subsection shall be inserted twice at an interval of not less than two weeks in a newspaper or newspapers published and circulating in the City of Newcastle, and twice at an interval of not less than two weeks in a newspaper or newspapers published in Sydney and circulating widely throughout New South Wales.

(3) At any time after the publication of the first advertisement referred to in subsection two of this section and before the expiration of three months after the publication of the last of those advertisements the representatives or any persons claiming to be the representatives of any person who is buried in or whose ashes have been placed in or on those lands may, at their own expense, and with the permission of the Council and the Corporate Trustees, remove the headstone or other surface structure erected over the grave of or in respect of that person, and may, at their own expense, and with the permission of the Director-General of Public Health, remove to such cemetery as they desire the remains of that person.

(4) Subject to this Act, the Council may do all such other things as it may consider necessary to effect the conversion of the land described in the First Schedule to this Act into a rest park and garden area.