Site works start at new Bellarine Memorial Park

THE Geelong Cemeteries Trust has started site works for the development of a new Bellarine Memorial Park at Marcus Hill.

The 39.7-hectare site, located on the corner of the Bellarine Highway and Maddens Lane, will serve the needs for burial space in the Bellarine Peninsula, and burials are expected to be available within the next seven to 10 years.

Trust deputy chief executive officer and operations manager Frank de Groot said the site would accommodate about 220,000 burial interments, and would have an estimated life span in excess of 200 years. The Geelong Cemeteries Trust is a not-forprofit organisation, accountable to the Department of Health and Human Services, which administers 19 other cemeteries in the Greater Geelong, Borough of Queenscliffe, Surf Coast, Colac Otway and Gisborne regions.

As a not-for-profit organisation, the Trust is responsible for the care and long-term maintenance of all distinctive cemetery locations managed by the Trust in perpetuity (for all time).

The Trust is also responsible to ensure that there is sufficient land available to service the communities for future burial and memorial space, and with the Portarlington, Drysdale, Queenscliff and Leopold Cemeteries having between 15 to 30 years left in burial space, the Trust identified the need for another cemetery in the Bellarine in 2013.

In 2015, the Trust worked with the Bellarine Landcare Group to manage weeds, and started a revegetation program along Yarrum Creek, with more than 1,500 indigenous shrubs, trees and grasses planted. In 2017 and 2018, the Trust removed more than 18,000 blue gums, with the trees turned to mulch for use within other Trust sites.

“The Trust is currently creating the cemetery road reserves, with swale drains cut out, ready for road construction as needed,” Mr de Groot said.

“A large area within the centre of the site has also been cleared that will be developed within the next three to five years as the first burial area.

“About 1,200 avenue trees of the local Bellarine Yellow Gum will be planted out in 2018.”

Mr de Groot said by developing this section of the site over the next few years, trees would be planted, grass sown and roads marked to ensure that the “park” feel of the site would be in place when the cemetery was needed for burials.