Former servicemen now lie beneath footpaths, walls, and garden beds at a major cemetery due to bureaucratic lapses, a Senate estimates hearing has heard.
The issue was raised during the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee on June 2.
Liberal Senator Andrew McLachlan said hundreds of graves at the Karrakatta Cemetery in Western Australia (WA) had their official commemorations “destroyed or removed by the two agencies charged with maintaining them.”
“These include soldiers who fought at Gallipoli, those decorated for bravery on the Western Front, prisoners of war, and many others who succumbed to the effects of war,” he said, pointing out that this was in contravention of a commitment made in 1922 that the graves of eligible veterans be marked with permanent official headstones and maintained in perpetuity.
“Many of these official commemorations were removed, destroyed, or abandoned, while other veterans are now buried beneath a footpath or a wall or garden beds,” McLachlan said.
“Despite repeated requests by the families that [they] be returned to the gravesite, both the Metropolitan Cemetery Board and the Office of War Graves have only agreed to do this wherever possible, and not with the permanent headstone that was promised to the family.”
Wade Stothart, the director of war graves, told the committee that the states and territories took different approaches to graves, particularly regarding burial rights.
“Tenure is different by state and territory … in some states, that’s not held in perpetuity,” he explained.
“You have a leasehold over that piece of land, [it’s] not held in freehold in WA and South Australia. When that burial right expires at 25 or 50 years, or whatever the time period is, it is either renewed or that piece of land can be reused [or] redeveloped.”
When Karrakatta Cemetery underwent a major redevelopment between 1980 and 2007, some veterans’ graves lacked a family member or other person responsible for renewing the tenure.
As a result, many graves were desecrated, with at least one having cement poured over it to make a footpath.
After the issue became public around ANZAC Day last year, WA’s Cemeteries Board placed some concrete markers near the relevant sites.
“It is very clear to me that we need to come to a uniform approach across the nation in every state and territory, how we deal with war graves and graves that contain veterans,” Stothart said.
“We are looking to move towards a more uniform approach across the whole Commonwealth as to how we deal with war graves and graves containing veterans.”
In response, the senator said he couldn’t fathom how a footpath was built over a Digger’s grave.
“I still can’t fathom that somebody thought it was okay to build a footpath over somebody who was prepared to lay down their life for us,” McLachlan said.
“I mean, find me an Australian who thinks that’s okay. Lest we forget—until we do. Unbelievable.”
In 2023, the government funded gravestones to commemorate veterans who returned home and died of causes unrelated to service.
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