Sunday, February 3, 2013

Deathly task in restoring graves - ABC Local


Elaine Duncan of Ipswich Cemeteries said about half a metre of water went through the cemetery during the flooding caused by ex-tropical cyclone Oswald, which resulted in the graves to sinking more than normal.


"Graves do sink, that's quite common, but we had such an amount of water this time that they've sunk more than normal, and all at once.


"When you have excess rain they drop more, because the air pockets between the dirt are taken up by the water and the soil just drops.


Ms Duncan said the graves usually sit 2.2 metres underground, and the recent damaged sustained in the flooding event have caused the graves to sink up to one metre.


She said the affected area of the cemetery looks to be littered with holes.


"From a bit of a distance it looks as though someone has dug up the graves or you've prepared graves for a burial that's going to happen.


Between 50-60 graves at the Warrill Park Lawn Cemetery and a number of graves from smaller country cemeteries managed by Ipswich cemeteries have suffered the damage.


Ms Duncan said it is unlikely that any of the caskets have been damaged and the sunken graves will be restored again soon.


"We feel we'll have it all back to normal in the next two weeks," she said.


Last week three cemeteries in Toowoomba were closed due to damaged sustained in the weather event.


Toowoomba councillor Ros Scotney said almost 100 graves across the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery, Crows Nest Cemetery and Cabarlah Cemetery will need to be repaired.


"There will be no problem restoring the graves. People might see sand or soil around them, but they'll be brought back to normal.


"We're trying to rectify things as quickly as possible so when people go out there it won't cause any distress," she said.


Additional reporting: Peter Gunders




Elaine Duncan spoke with Tim Cox

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