To date, more than 45 original sections at Karrakatta Cemetery have been affected by the redevelopment program — marketed by the misleading term “Cemetery Renewal”. The Metropolitan Cemeteries Board (MCB) claims that this process is “essential” to keep the cemetery open for new burials.
It seems, however, that Karrakatta is also being used for other, more obscure reasons.
In 2018, the Anglican VC burial section was redeveloped and renamed to “Peter MacLean Gardens” — in honour of the former MCB CEO. Most of the existing headstones were removed. It has now become a multi-purpose section, consisting of Pinnaroo-style lawn graves, memorial gardens and granite walls for urns.
Hardly any “new” burials have taken place in the redeveloped area. Some of these burials, in fact, are just for show.
Take these two bronze plaques, for example. They are supposedly dedicated to Thomas Everlon and Amanda Matthews. Strangely, neither show up in the MCB’s Name Search database. However, BOTH happen to appear in the MCB’s memorials brochure.
Pages 52 to 55 of the brochure (archived in 2020) show the exact same plaque for Amanda, and various styles of plaque for Thomas.
The designs are available for purchase directly from the MCB.
Obviously, Thomas and Amanda are not real people — they are just sample names. This then begs the question: WHY are they on display at Karrakatta?
The MCB needs to explain this to the public. It’s not alright for historic burial areas to be redeveloped, just to be replaced with mock graves. Our loved ones deserve so much better than this.
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Very disappointing that my Family are also involved in this SAD state of affairs.All Family research and photos of graves have gone ……. seems we have only FAKE memorial’s!!!! My Family have a very big history in Australia.
Wendy