55Re-use of interment sites and removal of memorials in relation to expired renewable interment rights

55 Re-use of interment sites and removal of memorials in relation to expired renewable interment rights

55 Re-use of interment sites and removal of memorials in relation to expired renewable interment rights

(1) Subject to this section and the regulations, if a renewable interment right in respect of an interment site expires, the cemetery operator may at the end of the period of 2 years after it expires do the following—

(a) re-use the interment site to which the renewable interment right related,

(b) remove any memorial to a deceased person erected on or at the site.

(2) A cemetery operator must not re-use an interment site or remove any memorial to a deceased person on an interment site unless—

(a) the cemetery operator has sought the advice (if any) required by section 69 (2) of the heritage advisory committee for the cemetery concerned, and

(b) the cemetery operator has given notice, in a way consistent with the Reasonable Notification Guidelines, of the cemetery operator’s intention to re-use the interment site or remove the memorial, and

(c) the cemetery operator has taken reasonable steps to give notice, in a way consistent with the Reasonable Notification Guidelines, of its intention to re-use the interment site or remove the memorial to the holder of the interment right and each person (if any) shown in the relevant cemetery operator’s register as a secondary contact with respect to the holder listed in the cemetery operator’s register, and

(d) in the case of the removal of a memorial—the cemetery operator has taken reasonable steps to give notice, in a way consistent with the Reasonable Notification Guidelines, of the steps that the person can take to reclaim the memorial.

(3) Subsection (1) does not apply to an interment site on or at which a memorial of the following kind is erected—

(a) a memorial that is an item of local heritage significance or State heritage significance under the Heritage Act 1977,

(b) a memorial relating to a grave listed by the Office of Australian War Graves,

(c) a memorial in relation to a person who died from a prescribed infectious disease within the meaning of Division 3 of Part 8 of the .