36Depth of burial requirements

36 Depth of burial requirements

(1) Subject to subregulations (2) and (3), if bodily remains or body parts are interred in a place of interment in a public cemetery, the cemetery trust responsible for that cemetery must ensure that—

(a) if a sealed cap is to be installed over the bodily remains or body parts in the place of interment—

(i) the sealed cap is installed as soon as practicable after the interment; and

(ii) there is at least 400 millimetres of earth between the sealed cap and normal ground level; or

Reg. 36(1)(b) amended by S.R. No. 114/2025 reg. 7.

(b) if the place of interment is unsealed, there is at least 750 millimetres of earth between the coffin, casket, container, receptacle or those remains and normal ground level.

Penalty: 10 penalty units.

(2) Despite subregulation (1), a right of interment may be exercised to inter bodily remains or body parts in a place of interment if—

(a) that right of interment has been exercised in relation to that place of interment at least once before 28 July 1998; and

(b) in interring those bodily remains or body parts by the current exercise of that right—

(i) the place of interment is resealed with a sealed cap as soon as practicable after the interment; and

(ii) the sides of the place of interment above the sealed cap are lined with brick, stone, concrete or other similar material; and

(iii) there is at least 300 millimetres of earth between the sealed cap and normal ground level.

(3) A cemetery trust must ensure that an interment to which subregulation (2) applies is carried out in accordance with that subregulation.

Penalty: 10 penalty units.

(4) This regulation does not apply to the interment of human remains in—

(a) a concrete‑lined grave; or

(b) a mausoleum; or

(c) an above ground interment structure.