Councillor Tony O’Grady moved the motion to delay the funding. Photo: Griffith City Council.
Griffith Council has voted to withdraw $400,000 in funding for a cremator it had planned to buy and lease to a local funeral business.
The local government body had pledged to make the investment to help private company Griffith Regional Funeral Services establish a crematorium in town. Griffith has never had this service, meaning grieving residents need to travel to Wagga for cremations.
However, questions have been raised over why ratepayers’ money needs to be spent on this project, given that another business – Trenerry Funerals – is opening a privately funded crematorium later this year.
At a recent council meeting, Cr Tony O’Grady moved to have the funding for the council-backed crematorium to be removed from the 2025/26 budget and reconsidered in next year’s 2026/27 budget.
“Our budget has some constraints at the moment. We’ve got quite a significant deficit … we’ll see where we stand next year; hopefully we can fund it then,” Cr O’Grady said.
Cr Jenny Ellis opposed the motion.
“What does this say about anything we work at as a council? We get as far as a lease and then we say oh no, we’re not going to give it, we are going to move it another year,” she said.
“I’m thinking about the disadvantage we give to that business. More importantly, it’s about our word as a council – it’s a laughing stock. Who can ever trust our word when we just move things around like this?”
Trenerry Funerals imported the first cremator to touch Griffith soil in May. Photo: Supplied.
Cr Dal Bron disagreed with Cr Ellis and backed the motion.
“I don’t think it would disadvantage [either business]. I think it would create a level playing field. I think it’s fair to push things back,” he said.
Cr Stead also supported the motion, arguing that council didn’t know how much a cremator would cost and given inflation, it could cost a lot more than $400,000.
“A lot of the community are saying ‘why does council want to be involved in this … deferring it for 12 months is not going to hurt.’”
Crs Stead, Napoli, Groat and Dal Bon all supported Cr O’Grady’s motion to withdraw the funding, and Crs Curran, Testoni, Blumer and Ellis all voted against, meaning it was carried by five votes to four.
Trenerry Funerals’ project hit a roadblock in April when Griffith Council ordered it to immediately cease work on its fence, 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 a few days after Region reported on it, enabling work to proceed.
In May, its 14-tonne cremator was delivered to Griffith from the United States.
Prices for Trenerry Funerals cremations will start at $1200, which is around a third of the average cost of lawn cemetery burials, which cost around $3500.
Trenerry Funerals owner Daniel Calabro said he was hopeful construction would be completed and a service could open before the end of the year.
