Today	Sat
Clear 22°/ 9°	Partly Cloudy 20°/ 7°

← Grand Final soccer series takes to the radio airwaves Feds to blame for job losses – Walsh →

Funding boost to protect cemetery

Posted on September 23, 2011

By BEN PISCIONERI

A QUARTER of a million dollars in government funding will be injected into Mildura’s Murray Pines Cemetery to ensure any future flooding doesn’t damage graves and memorials at the site.

GOOD PLANS: Member for Mildura Peter Crisp, Deputy Mildura Mayor Sue Nichols, Mildura Rural City Councillor Nick Cavallo and Water Minister Peter Walsh look over plans for the drainage works at Murray Pines Cemetery yesterday.

The facility was among numerous locations severely impacted by February’s record rain and resulting flooding.

“The water was flowing right through here,” Mildura Rural City Councillor Nick Cavallo, who is also a Mildura Cemetery Trustee, said this week at the site.

“I mean, there was that much water in such a short time, as we saw all around the district.

“It was actually flowing across from the airport over the road, straight through the cemetery, so it was quite traumatic.”

February’s massive rainfall wasn’t the only time the cemetery has been flooded, often undermining grave sites and damaging memorials.

While Council’s engineers have come up with a plan to ensure any future heavy rain event doesn’t cause similar damage, the hold up, until now, has been funding.

But a $250,000 boost from the Victorian and Federal Governments means the project can now go ahead.

The works will use a combination of levees and depressions to retain and divert excess water away from grave sites and memorials into wetlands.

The wetlands meanwhile will allow storm water to be retained on site, which will then be available for watering the cemetery gardens.

Member for Mildura Peter Crisp said the cemetery was an important asset for the community, hosting about 360 funerals each year.

Tweet This Post Post to Facebook