Cremation Services · Sheet 6 of 6
Memorials and places to remember
Ashes can be placed in a cemetery in a small plot, a niche in a columbarium wall or a memorial garden, and each place is arranged with the cemetery. In NSW and Victoria the place is held under a right that decides who can be placed there and for how long, and in Victoria a plaque or other memorial needs the cemetery trust’s approval.
A place to visit can matter long after the funeral. The words cemeteries use for it are not everyday words, so this sheet starts with them.
Reading the cemetery’s map
- Columbarium
- A structure, usually a wall, with niches (small spaces) for urns or other approved containers of ashes. It may be outdoors or inside a building.
- Niche
- One of those small spaces. At City of Gold Coast cemeteries, the ashes are placed in the niche and a memorial plaque is fixed over it.
- Memorial garden
- A rose or planted garden for placing ashes.
- Interment
- Burial in the ground, or placement in a mausoleum, vault, columbarium or other structure built for the purpose. It includes ashes.
- Right of interment, or interment right
- The right to a particular place in a cemetery, such as a plot, grave, crypt or cremation niche. In Victoria, it carries the right to decide who can be interred there and what memorial, if any, is put up, subject to the trust’s policies. In NSW, the choice of who is buried at the site belongs to the holder alone.
How long a place is held
| State | Forever | For a set time |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | A perpetual interment right: the remains stay in place forever. | A renewable interment right: a limited period of between 25 and 99 years. |
| Victoria | Ashes interred in perpetuity. | Ashes interred for 25 years (limited tenure). |
In Victoria, the application to inter ashes goes to the cemetery trust, with its documents and fee, and needs the permission of the holder of the right of interment. Each trust’s fees can be found through the Department of Health’s cemetery search.
Putting up a memorial: Victoria’s course
Victoria’s Department of Health sets out the steps for a plaque, headstone or other memorial in a public cemetery.
Ask first
Enquire with a stonemason or the cemetery trust, and obtain a quote and the trust’s requirements before applying.
Apply to the trust
The stonemason, or the holder of the right of interment, applies with the trust’s fee, a plan or design of the memorial, and the right holder’s written consent where needed.
The decision
The trust has 45 days from receiving the application and all relevant information to approve or refuse it. Among other grounds, it can refuse a memorial that is unsafe, not permanent enough, or out of keeping with its documented policy for the surrounding memorials, and it should give written reasons.
Building and inspection
The trust may inspect the finished memorial against the terms of its approval, and can require removal of one put up without consent.
Looking after it
The holder of the right of interment is responsible for keeping the memorial safe and in proper condition.
Memorials in NSW national parks
A monument or plaque on land managed by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service needs written approval. Because parks are set aside to conserve natural and cultural landscapes, the Service encourages alternatives to permanent monuments and plaques, such as memorial donations, events and tree plantings.
Remembering without a plot
Not every place to remember is a cemetery. City of Gold Coast has areas for a memorial plaque for people whose ashes were scattered. A memorial service needs no cemetery at all; direct cremation says more. And ashes kept at home, in an urn, are a place to remember too; keeping or sharing ashes covers that.