The case of a father who was quoted $40,000 to bury his young son in Sydney has highlighted how burial plots in the city’s cemeteries have fallen to crisis levels.
John contacted Ben Fordham on 2GB radio this week for help in accessing his superannuation to pay for the burial of his son, Justin, who was 24.
He said one funeral director quoted $40,000 for the burial at Rookwood cemetery in Sydney’s west.
While graves are available for between $10,000 and $15,000, other sections can be more expensive.
Fordham said there were concerns some funeral companies were exploiting grieving families.
“That is daylight robbery,” he said of John’s case.
Today the NSW Minister for Lands, Stephen Kamper, is set to announce the appointment of an administrator to overhaul Sydney’s cemeteries.
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The state government will also launch an urgent audit into available burial space.
Kamper told 2GB the state government is “determined to provide a fresh start” amid concern available burial land has dropped to “alarming levels”.
A 2021 report found all Crown cemeteries will run out of burial space within 12 years.
Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs faced the biggest pressure, but space available at the Rookwood, Botany, Field of Mars and Macquarie Park cemeteries was also running out.
The report also warned funeral operators had combined debts of $300 million and were in danger of a “financial collapse”.
The planned Western Sydney Cemetery Complex is a 73-hectare block of land on Greendale Road in Wallacia, which was approved to be a cemetery.
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