Photograph from Wikipedia. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons. Attribution: Winston Yang

Photograph of Waverley Cemetery from Wikipedia, this work is licensed under the Creative Commons.
Attribution: Winston Yang

Waverley Cemetery in Sydney is one that has been acknowledged as “one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world“, and it’s easy to see why. Sitting on the cliffs at Bronte, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, overlooking the sea, the sight of the thousands of Victorian and Edwardian monuments is simply spectacular.

This cemetery opened in 1877, and has managed to be a self-sustaining not-for-profit operation for over 120 years, ploughing whatever surpluses it can achieve back into site maintenance and improvement.

However the cemetery’s financial future is now very uncertain, simply because the demand for traditional burials is dropping in Australia, so the Cemetery can no longer expect to be able to rely entirely on sales of grave plots. Meanwhile the demand for undercover funerals and different ash interment options is increasing.

So to survive, Waverley Cemetery needs to change the way it does business. It needs to diversify its services

The “Save Waverley Cemetery” campaigners are wanting to put a request to the local council, asking for a few things which will improve the cemetery, and its financial sustainability. So to help with this, they are asking for your help to sign a petition

Please Note: I acknowledge that this isn’t a ‘new’ campaign, but rather one that I have only just found out about. I do apologise for the ‘late’ news on this, and I’m not sure why I missed it earlier. However I hope mentioning it here will get the word out a little further, and help the cause.

You can sign the petition here
View the Save Waverley Cemetery website
And be sure to follow the Save Waverley Cemetery campaign on Facebook