Griffith Council approves two new crematoriums in town

After decades of having no crematorium in town, Griffith Council has approved development applications (DA) for two businesses to each build a facility to burn dead bodies to ashes, at a meeting on Tuesday (10 December).

Council gave the green light for its own joint venture with Griffith Regional Funeral Services to run a service at 172 Wakaden Street, opposite Marian Catholic College, in which the council itself spends $400,000 to purchase the cremator.

The local government body also approved rival Trenerry Funerals’ fully privately-funded proposal to build both a human and pet crematorium at 1-3 Battista Street in Yoogali.

“I’m happy that both of us got approved, but I’m not happy that council is putting in $400,000 of ratepayers’ money for a crematorium to be put in by a private business in Griffith when another private enterprise is putting one in at no cost to the ratepayer,” Trenerry Funerals owner Daniel Calabro said of the decision.

“I can’t see why everyone in Griffith has to pay for something they may never use.

“The council says it doesn’t want to go back on its word, but its word is costing ratepayers $400,000. Why can’t they change their minds? They do with everything else.”

In the debate on the DAs, Councillor Jenny Ellis questioned whether Griffith had a population big enough to support two crematoriums.

“If we had known in 2022 that the other funeral company in town had planned to do a crematorium … I would have probably not put this impost on council to pay for this cremator as we have a tight budget as it is … but we are stuck between a rock and hard place as this DA is fine,” she said.

“Will we be seen as a council conferring commercial advantage to one company over another? I’d like that concern noted.”

Mayor Doug Curran said council contacted all three funeral directors in town in 2022 to ask them if they wanted to submit an expression of interest on a new crematorium.

“We were advised … that Trenerry would not be putting one forward and were advised that there was only one coming forward … we based our decision on information we had at that time.”

This is disputed by Mr Calabro.

“It’s not true that council didn’t know we were also going to do a crematorium,” he said.

“When council approached us, we clearly told them that we didn’t want to do a joint venture but would be doing it ourselves.

“Council knew about our plans before they went ahead with their proposal. Council should not be in the business of running funeral homes.”

In response, Mayor Curran said: “It’s disappointing that Daniel wasn’t more forthcoming when council was engaging with local funeral directors for almost a year.

“Trenerry Funerals specifically told council that they would not participate in the process, and most importantly the indication to operate their own cremator was commercial in confidence information that council staff did not breach.”

Mr Calabro said council clearly knew he was doing his own crematorium and should not be using ratepayers’ funds to do the same thing.

“At the end of the day, why are they pursuing this when they know we are doing it?” he said.

The Sikh community in Griffith has long pushed for the establishment of a crematorium in town, as their religion prefers the burning of dead bodies to burials.

The absence of a local facility has meant this group has had to travel to Wagga to use this service, which is both costly and time-consuming at a difficult time for families.

“This is the hot topic of the last 15 years. We need this facility very urgently in this town, not just for the Indian community,” former councillor Manjit Singh Lally said.

He said he hoped the presence of two DAs didn’t slow things down.

Councillor Scott Groat expressed concerns about the Griffith Regional Funeral Services proposed crematorium being too close to a school [Marian Catholic College].

Mayor Curran said the school did not express any objections during the consultation process.

The Trenerry proposal received some written objections from neighbouring properties, such as Greengecko Garden Centre, which raised concerns about the impact the crematorium would have on air quality, wastewater disposal and traffic.

A council assessment found that Trennery had adequately addressed all concerns raised and recommended the DA be approved.

Councillor Mark Dal Bon asked what type of animals would be disposed of in the proposed Trenerry Funerals pet crematorium.

“Some people have horses as pets,” he said.

Mr Calabro said it would be small and medium-sized pets only, such as dogs and cats, and not include horses or ponies.

A majority of councillors voted to approve both DAs, with Anne Napoli, Mark Dal Bon and Scott Groat opposing them both.

Trenerry Funerals is aiming to have its human crematorium complete by mid-2025, while the Griffith Regional Funeral Services is expected to be complete by 2026.