Grave Shortage and Railway Siding

[Special_K]

In today's Sydney Morning Herald (14 April 2021) there is an article detailing the shortage of grave sites in Sydney. It suggests that the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park could build crypts to house an additional 3,000 bodies "next to an old railway siding at Malabar"

Of course the jouno means Matraville, although the area is also known as Port Botany.

A line used to run from Botany Goods Yard to both the Bunnerong Power House and the BORAL sidings. Even after the power house was decommisoned , the Electricity Commission still used their old ex NSWGR 24 class steam locos to shunt in empty and take out full petrol tankers, until about 1975.

Imagine, the future scene, as the mist rolls in from Botany Bay amidst the ghosts of clanking locos, sqealing flanges and dimly lit shunting lamps! Port Botany Bus Depot shed staff, if not already spooked by being privatised, will not have a ghost of a chance, particularly if there is an increase in dead running.

A grave problem indeed!

[tonyp]

The first site that came to my mind when reading this was the tram loop next to the Coast Hospital at Little Bay, which some could misconstrue as Malabar. There is a lot of unused land next to that. As for the Bunnerong site, the Botany Cemetery has already expanded to the cliff edge above the old power station. Down below is an industrial area that would not be a realistic site for further cemetery expansion. As this is a photo thread, maybe a photo of any map in the Herald article would help clarify.

[Special_K]

A good point tonyp. In my haste to comment on the article, i have Bunneronged the post into the Photos section. The Herald article did not contain a map. Perhaps, a knowledgeable moderator could exhume my post and place it in the NSW section.

Thanks for your comment.

[lunchbox]

When I read "old rail siding" I immediately thought it meant the high-level track which ran behind Bunnerong Power Station, terminating just 20m from the back of the cemetery admin. building in Military Road. The siding's still there.
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[tonyp]

When I read "old rail siding" I immediately thought it meant the high-level track which ran behind Bunnerong Power Station, terminating just 20m from the back of the cemetery admin. building in Military Road. The siding's still there.
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You could be onto something. There is a bit of empty land along there.

[boronia]

The refinery was built by Total and later taken over by Boral. That site is now an industrial estate.

There is a picture here
https://www.wiki.total/sites/default/fi ... arge_0.jpg
but note that it is reversed.

Total refinery (Small).jpg (120.94 KiB) Viewed 4565 times

You can see the rail sidings centre left and across Military Rd.

Looking at Google earth, there doesn't look like there is much free space on the eastern side of the cemetery,

[lunchbox]

Thanks for the pic boronia, but I'm NOT refering to Boral's siding at the centre of the photo; rather the power station siding, which can be seen lower left in your pic, running in front of the pink-roofed building. The siding was connected to the Botany Line to the left, and the buffer stops were out of the pic, to the right.
Incidentally, I have never been able to ascertain the purpose of that huge pink-roofed building.
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[boronia]

Judging by all the transformers around it, I'd say some sort of Switch House.

[Swift]

Is that photo current, recent or decades old? If the two former, there must be a heritage order going on.
Sick of that word shortage. Car shortage, computer chip shortage, now a grave shortage. What next a vacuum cleaner shortage?

[lunchbox]

Boronia's photo is indeed decades old. The Total / Boral oil tanks have gone, as has the mysterious pink-roofed Bunnerong Power House building at lower left, which was served by the refered-to siding which is still (2021) intact. The crematorium, right, is still there.
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[Swift]

It looks like a college building. Trust NSW to remove such a grand looking structure for electricity infrastructure!! The mediocrity never ends.

I bet Pat's Uninteresting Tours stopped by this haunt many a time, even if it betrays it's own name!

[lunchbox]

Here's a pic of the Bunnerong Power Station building, under construction, as shown with a pink roof in boronia's April 20, 2021, post, above. The extant (in 2020) railway siding came in from the left and terminated, roughly, within the low-roof annexe in the foreground. The decoration over the archways is interesting. I still don't know the purpose of this building, long since demolished. (2910)

EDIT / CORRECTION - 20.9.21. I am reliably informed the building was named "33KV Switch House", that this photo has been reversed, and that it depicts demolition, not construction!
(3224)

[1whoknows]

No need for new grave sites - just a Soylent Green factory.

[Centralian]

Needs a re-brand though to appeal to the savvy consumers of today.

[RayW]

An interesting topic really. Creating new grave sites has always been a thorn in the side of almost every state Government in NSW, since Rookwood was built. There have been so few since then, about 4 I think from memory and we are growing short of them.

Personally I'm of the opinion that in general we need to look at smaller populations, not larger ones. Too late for that I suppose, so since we have to live with it, planning should be in place before we open the door, not after.

One small possible site that could take around a 1,000 graves would be the old Hardie's site at Camelia. It'll never be approved for anything in the near future, so why not a small local cemetery. Other possible sites are along the F4 freeway out past Mt Druitt. There are 100s of acres of vacant Government owned land out that way.

[jpp42]

I mean, the reason this isn't that big an issue and haven't built many new cemeteries recently is most people opt for cremation.

This problem solves itself as the cost of plots goes up, fewer and fewer people opt for traditional burial.
Internment in a columbarium is increasingly popular, and places like Macquarie Park Cemetery which have run out of land, are increasingly building new columbariums (memorial walls with niches to place the "cremains").

[RayW]

I mean, the reason this isn't that big an issue and haven't built many new cemeteries recently is most people opt for cremation.

This problem solves itself as the cost of plots goes up, fewer and fewer people opt for traditional burial.
Internment in a columbarium is increasingly popular, and places like Macquarie Park Cemetery which have run out of land, are increasingly building new columbariums (memorial walls with niches to place the "cremains").

I really don't see that our way. My wife and I visit Rookwood almost every weekend and we see far more burials taking place there than cremations. My dear old Mother in Law used to say, 'people get buried, rubbish is burned.'

[Swift]

Who takes notice of their mother in law?
Burying is indulgent. Youo ain't getting reanimated.

[RayW]

Who takes notice of their mother in law?
Burying is indulgent. Youo ain't getting reanimated.

If the woman giving you advice is a wonderful soul who raised the woman you married and love, yes you do take notice.

Burying isn't indulgent, it's simply the way people choose to go. After all we are still a free society aren't we? (Though we're losing more of that freedom everyday because of the woke agenda)

[Swift]

Who takes notice of their mother in law?
Burying is indulgent. Youo ain't getting reanimated.

If the woman giving you advice is a wonderful soul who raised the woman you married and love, yes you do take notice.

Burying isn't indulgent, it's simply the way people choose to go. After all we are still a free society aren't we? (Though we're losing more of that freedom everyday because of the woke agenda)

You are among plenty who have embraced their in laws but you know the cliche.
Did you know that married couples tend to gravitate to the wife's family? It's a known fact and you fit into that.

Onto my assertion that burial is an indulgence, your arguments are hardly a counter point to what I said.
Thoroughly agree on your last one though. See signature.

[jpp42]

I mean, the reason this isn't that big an issue and haven't built many new cemeteries recently is most people opt for cremation.

This problem solves itself as the cost of plots goes up, fewer and fewer people opt for traditional burial.
Internment in a columbarium is increasingly popular, and places like Macquarie Park Cemetery which have run out of land, are increasingly building new columbariums (memorial walls with niches to place the "cremains").

I really don't see that our way. My wife and I visit Rookwood almost every weekend and we see far more burials taking place there than cremations.

That's hardly relevant. You aren't going to "see" most cremations unless you're watching the bodies being dropped off at the crematorium. There are many different things people do with the ashes, only a minority inter them in a columbarium, bury in a cemetery, etc.

The actual statistics are that 75% of Australians are cremated - note that of those 75%, 22% don't have a funeral at all, of any time ("direct cremations").

[Special_K]

It's a good thing that Route 408 soldiers on in serving the depths of Rookwood Cemetery. In pre Metrobus days, the route was extended about 500 metres to better serve Greek Orthodox mourners, many of whom used the service daily.

The irony is that much of the western portion of Rookwood is better served by the adjacent M92, although the elderly may well prefer the good old 408!

[RayW]

You are among plenty who have embraced their in laws but you know the cliche.
Did you know that married couples tend to gravitate to the wife's family? It's a known fact and you fit into that.

Onto my assertion that burial is an indulgence, your arguments are hardly a counter point to what I said.
Thoroughly agree on your last one though. See signature.

My family didn't give a toss about me after I joined the Navy; my father was Air Force and to him, me doing that was a crime in his eyes. My mother was nothing more than a self serving b*tch.

I understand the arguments here; to me though burial just seems to be more natural.

How many of you remember the old platforms at Rookwood? and indeed the siding that went into the cemetery?

[Glen]

I remember when it was a shunting neck from Lidcombe Platform 4, does that count?

[RayW]

I remember when it was a shunting neck from Lidcombe Platform 4, does that count?

Indeed it does. I recall as a kid going to Auburn Pool (which is weird because its actually in Lidcombe) and seeing a C30 (I think) backing up there after delivering a load of sheep wagons to Flemington that we had seen earlier in the day.