Daniel Calabro is pleased the work on his crematorium can continue. Photo: Oliver Jacques.
Griffith City Council has lifted a stop work order on the building of a fence for a new crematorium in town, just days after putting the controversial ban in place.
Trenerry Funerals recently commenced work on what is set to be the first facility in the town that enables the cremating of dead bodies, putting poles in place to construct a fence around a human and pet crematorium that will be built on Battista Street in Yoogali.
Meanwhile, council is spending $400,000 of ratepayers’ money to buy a cremator for Griffith Regional Funeral Services, which is establishing a rival service opposite Marian Catholic College.
Region previously reported that the council ordered Trenerry Funerals to immediately cease work on its fence just before Easter, claiming it was “unlawful”. It said that failure to comply could result in a penalty of up to $1.1 million.
However, the local government body reversed this decision on Tuesday (29 April), enabling work to proceed.
“We had a complaint that the part of the fence that was on a roadway [Mackay Avenue] was too high, so we’ve agreed to fix that up and lower the height from 1.8 metres to 1.2 metres,” Trenerry Funerals owner Daniel Calabro said.
“I would’ve preferred if they’d rang me and discussed it rather than sending a stop work notice. But we’re good to proceed now, there’s no need for a new development application.”
Mr Calabro said he expected his service to be operating before the end of the year.
“We are going to have a separate cremator for humans and another one for pets, in two buildings next to each other,” he said.
“The pet cremator will be for household pets like dogs and cats, but not for horses or ponies.”
The human cremator will have a space for family members to view the cremation if they wish.
Region asked Griffith Council if it saw itself as having a conflict of interest on this matter given it was funding a rival crematorium and if so, how it had mitigated this conflict of interest.
The council refused to answer, with a spokesperson saying it had no comment on the matter.
The Sikh community in Griffith has long pushed for the establishment of a crematorium in town, as its religion believes that the human body serves no purpose other than to house a soul. Sikhs therefore prefer the burning of dead bodies to burials.
Mr Calabro said there was unlikely to be enough demand in Griffith to sustain two separate crematoriums.
“We’ll probably do about 50 cremations in the first year,” he said.
“A funeral business doesn’t tend to make a lot of money from this part of their service.”
