The Broadford Cemetery Trust has welcomed the delivery of its new motorised wheelbarrow after receiving a $3200 grant from the Federal Government.
The new piece of machinery will help the cemetery’s volunteers with maintenance, including transporting soil and granite monuments.
Broadford Cemetery Trust secretary Brian O’Dwyer said the trust was very impressed with its new wheelbarrow.
“We’ve used it a couple times since we’ve received it because of all the rain recently,” he said.
“With the lawn graves, they sink so we’ve had to use it to top them up with dirt and regrow the grass again.”
With its volunteer base largely consisting of an older demographic, the motorised wheelbarrow helps volunteers complete a lot of the maintenance jobs that take a lot of time and physical exertion.
“The cemetery’s on a slope so it’s a bit difficult to be pushing barrows uphill, especially in the sloppy weather. We’ve got so this barrow that moves through that terrain very nicely and it doesn’t spoil our lawns either,” Mr O’Dwyer said.
The addition comes at an exciting time for the Broadford Cemetery Trust as it prepares to launch a fundraising appeal to build new cremation gardens, lawn burial facilities and a shelter.
The trust is planning to sell engraved pavers to the public to be installed on the floor of the new shelter to memorialise family members, friends or people who have contributed to Broadford but are not buried at the cemetery.
“We have a lot of people who spent a lot of time in the town and done wonderful things but have moved away. For people to see those old identities, it would be a great thing,” Mr O’Dwyer said.
“The profits from the appeal will go towards paying for the shelter and also towards the purchase of new roses and shrubs to go in our cremation gardens.”
The trust is also in the process of digitising the entire cemetery with help from a Department of Health and Human Services grant.
Members of the public will be able to visit the cemetery’s website to locate graves and research the people buried there.
“We get a lot of enquiries from people doing family histories so they’ll be able to look it up themselves. I’m expecting that to be ready by the end of the year,” Mr O’Dwyer said.
