New South Wales Consolidated Acts

GOSFORD CEMETERIES ACT 1970 - SECT 6

6 Removal of human remains, monuments 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 a 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 scheduled lands, so far as those names and that information can by reasonable diligence be obtained, and deposit and maintain the register at the offices of the Council at Gosford, so as to be available for inspection by any interested person from time to time,

(b) furnish a certified copy of the register to the Minister,

(c) furnish a certified copy of the 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 monuments and other surface structures on the scheduled lands and re-arrange or dispose of them at the discretion of the Council,

(e) plant the scheduled lands with trees, lawns, shrubs and plants and otherwise improve them as rest parks and garden areas, and

(f) erect a memorial, tablet or plaque in a suitable position on the land described in the First Schedule to this Act and a memorial, tablet or plaque in a suitable position on the land described in the Second Schedule to this Act, each indicating the sacred nature of the respective area and where the register referred to in paragraph (a) of this subsection may be inspected and stating that a copy of the register may be inspected at the Mitchell Library, Sydney.

(2) At least three months before any monuments or other surface structures are removed by the Council pursuant to 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 three shall be inserted twice at an interval of not less than two weeks in a newspaper or newspapers published and circulating in the locality, 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 from the publication of the last of those advertisements the representatives or any persons claiming to be representatives of any person who is buried in or whose ashes have been placed in or on the scheduled lands may, at their own expense, and with the permission of the Council, remove the monument or other surface structure erected over the grave of that person, and may, at their own expense, and with the permission of the Director-General of Public Health, remove the remains of that person to another cemetery for burial or to a crematorium for cremation.

(4) Subject to this Act, the Council may do all such other things as it may consider necessary to effect the conversion of the scheduled lands into rest parks and garden areas.