Family members of loved ones buried at Eaglehawk Cemetery have set up a Facebook page and are taking their case to the media after managers from Remembrance Parks Central Victoria (RPCV) started removing items adorning grave sites in the past week-and-a-half.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
While many plot-holders had been aware the cemetery planned to enforce a long-held policy banning ceramics, glass and a range of other items decorating graves, there was confusion over the date when workers would start removing items, with one notice showing a February 6 deadline for adornments to be taken home.
Joanne Jennings, who understood the deadline was February 6, went to retrieve a vase her brother had left on their mother's gravesite when she was buried in 1997, only to find it had already been taken.
A large amount of recently bought artificial flowers, which cost about $280, had also gone missing.
"It made me want to be sick, to be honest," she said.
Her brother, Michael Cole, had bought the Bendigo Pottery vase for his mother "as a kid", and tied red, white and black ribbons around it when her team, St Kilda, made the grand final that year.
"It was the last thing I could ever give my mum and I would never have allowed strangers to throw it away like it meant nothing," he said.
"Remembrance Parks Central Victoria have taken the last bit of my mum away and I am hurt and angry about that."
The siblings are also angry about the state of the grave, which was "left in an absolute mess", according to Ms Jennings.
"There was dirt and everything over the headstone. You couldn't even see whose headstone it is," she said.
IN OTHER NEWS:
The siblings weren't the only ones who had lost "cherished items" from Eaglehawk. The Bendigo Advertiser spoke to five other people who were irate and upset about the cemetery's removal of items from their loved ones' graves.
Geraldine Byrne knew nothing about the adornment policy when her father and sister's graves were "stripped".
"I had no warning, I had no idea this was going on," she said.
"They left a glue spot on my father's grave. They must have kicked and kicked until the cemented-down vases came off."
Remembrance Parks Central Victoria published a "clarification" on Tuesday, saying it only intended to remove items from grave locations "that make areas unsafe, cause damage to sites or encroach on other memorial spaces, lawns or trees".
"The safety of the community and staff is of the utmost importance," the message said.
Ms Jennings disputed that safety had been an issue at her mother's grave.
She said she felt communication from RPCV had been lacking and staff contacted had lacked compassion in their approach.
"I just feel they could have had a community forum to discuss it with people."
Digital subscribers now have the convenience of faster news, right at your fingertips with the Bendigo Advertiser app. Click here to download.
