Northern Victorian cemeteries are set to benefit from a $72,000 Brumby Labor Government funding boost, Candy Broad, Member for Northern Victoria Region announced today.
The Brumby Labor Government has provided the money for maintenance grants to small and medium-sized Victorian cemetery trusts Ms Broad said.
Ms Broad said ten cemetery trusts State-wide will share $72,776 in grants, including the Greta Cemetary Trust which received $10,000 for the construction of a rotunda.
“The Greta cemetery contains the unmarked graves of several members of the Kelly family including Ned's mother Ellen and Jim and Dan Kelly,” Ms Broad said
The grants are for small rural cemeteries with little maintenance money and will be used for essential items such as equipment, general upkeep, facility renovations, fencing and tree and weed control.
Ms Broad said these grants also recognise the voluntary contribution of cemetery trust members.
“The Brumby Labor Government was able to meet the majority of requests for maintenance through these grants,” she said.
Applications were assessed on the nature of works, the size and viability of the cemetery trust, whether it had received a grant in recent years and on other financial considerations.
Ms Broad said the grants would be particularly helpful to small historical cemeteries in areas where populations had declined and there were few new burials.
“These grants will help maintain the integrity and structure of cemeteries which are often used for genealogical and historical research.
“Currently there are 522 cemetery trusts throughout Victoria managing 564 public cemeteries,” Ms Broad said.
“The Brumby Labor Government values the contribution of the thousands of volunteer members of small rural cemeteries across Victoria.”
In 2008 the Government took action to support and maintain small volunteer cemetery trusts and ensure that these organisations could continue their valuable work.