Why burial space is running out and what is being done to fix it

For Tanim Ahmed, there are few things more significant than farewelling a loved one after their death.

Burials are an important religious obligation within his Islamic faith. The deceased needs to be buried as soon as possible and in line with specific customs. Frequent visitation to a family member’s grave is strongly encouraged.

But burial facilities across Melbourne are rapidly approaching capacity. Regulations were changed in October last year to maximise space, and some cemeteries are pushing for permission to reuse graves after a certain period.

“We all have to die someday. So this is one of the most important things in your life – how you are saying your last goodbye to your family members,” Ahmed said.

Ongoing capacity issues have led to the construction of a new cemetery in the outer suburb of Harkness, near Melton in Melbourne’s west, and the proposal of another new site in Bangholme in the outer south-east.

The 128-hectare site in Harkness is underway and expected to open in mid-2027. The multimillion-dollar project will provide 140,000 interments when complete.

The local memorial park will reduce the need for residents in Melbourne’s sprawling west to travel to visit their loved ones’ graves. It will also relieve pressure from the inner city’s fast-filling cemeteries.

It’s particularly important for the Muslim community, who require specific sites that accommodate Muslim burials. The closest suitable cemeteries are currently in Bacchus Marsh and Lara.

Ahmed is one of 11,400 Islamic residents around Melton.

“If I have to bury my dad in Bacchus Marsh, I will probably not have the opportunity to [visit] every week or every month … I will go once a year or something like that,” Ahmed said.

“Everything is a bit more complicated when you don’t have a local facility. It’s definitely a bit of extra work for you,” he said.

The Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (GMCT), which manages the Harkness site, oversees 21 other memorial parks across metropolitan Melbourne. More than half of these are either full or nearly full, according to its latest annual report.

GMCT chief executive Andrew Erikson said the trust’s Williamstown and Keilor sites would likely be the next to reach capacity. Harkness will be the state’s biggest new cemetery in over a century – and the proposed site in Bangholme is expected to be of a similar scale.

“We’re just moving out from the inner-metropolitan Melbourne to the outer-metropolitan Melbourne, as society needs us to,” Erikson said.

“In a digital world, you can be almost flippant with memories rather than really sit and embrace them … I think those spaces that do that are incredibly valuable.”

On the south-eastern side of the city, the proposed memorial park in Bangholme is in the early stages of land acquisition and community consultation.

Managed by the Southern Metropolitan Cemetery Trust, it has not yet gained approval from the local council or the Department of Health, which oversees the state’s cemeteries. It could be anywhere from five years to a decade away from opening if these permits are acquired.

The trust’s two main cemeteries are reaching the end of their “saleable life,” according to chief executive Ingrid Harvey. Bunurong Memorial Park in Dandenong has roughly 15 years remaining, while Springvale Botanical Cemetery has closer to five.

Harvey said cemeteries need careful planning and consideration with population growth in mind, similar to schools, hospitals and transport networks.

“It’s not tomorrow’s problem, but long term we need to be finding additional space. And to develop a memorial park, it takes a significant amount of planning,” Harvey said.

“What we are doing today will support the community for the next 50 to 70 years.”

A spokesperson from the Department of Health said burial capacity across the state would be improved by the Harkness and Bangholme projects, along with the Bellarine Memorial Park near Geelong that opened in May.

“Victorians will continue to have access to burial, cremation and memorial services, with more than 600,000 burial plots available across the state’s five Class A cemetery trusts,” they said.

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