Douglas Park residents fight as developer reduces capacity of cemetery

Australia Broadcast Center

22-05-2025

Plans to bury tens of thousands of dead in a rural community outside of Sydney to address the city's cemetery shortage have been scaled back by the developer by almost half.
HT Building Pty Ltd has lodged a revised concept plan with the NSW Department of Planning Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI) for a new multi-denominational cemetery and crematorium at Douglas Park, about a 40-minute drive north-west of Wollongong.
Douglas Park Memorial Park is currently being assessed as a State Significant Development (SSD), however the proponent told the ABC it had now adjusted the number of burial plots outlined in its 2024 application from 69,759 to 37,000.
The Gilead-based company said a number of site studies including environmental heritage, waste management and infrastructure highlighted the need to reduce the cemetery's capacity.
"[This] has been informed by the completion of these technical studies and consultation with the government's State Design Review Panel," the company said.
"The crematorium remains part of the proposal for a later stage [of the development], and there will be dedicated consultation for this and all later stages of the project."
The revised concept plan, yet to be made public, is the third time the developer has changed the cemetery's size despite calls from Wollondilly Shire Council and the community to relocate or scrap the project.
"The amendments make no difference," said Tracey McConchie, who lives metres from the site.
Building Douglas Park Memorial Park, on a nearly 17,000 square-metre irregular block owned by Benima Pty Ltd, was first earmarked seven years ago.
But dozens of residents like Ms McConchie said it was the wrong site for the multi-million-dollar development.
"[The site] is basically a sandstone rock shelf. [The developer] would have to use a rock whipping process to basically manufacture soil to a depth to bury bodies," Ms McConchie said.
Five years ago, despite strong opposition from the community and council, Wollondilly's Local Planning Panel approved the first blueprint for Douglas Park Memorial Park at 27,784 burial plots.
That capacity was almost tripled by the developer last year, alongside plans to offer funeral services daily using a crematorium and chapel.
In its 2024 scoping report the developer said increasing the number of burial plots "responds to the need for cemeteries in NSW" as evidenced in the 11th Hour report which found public cemeteries in Sydney would close to new burials in a decade.
"But we are on the outskirts of the [Sydney] region … and Wollondilly Shire itself is well supplied into the future, even with increases in the population," Ms McConchie said.
She also said a crematorium close to people's homes was "inappropriate" and raised health concerns.
To access the cemetery, cars would have to use either the Hume Highway or a windy, one-way route over the Nepean River known as The Gorge which Deputy Mayor Matthew Deeth said "doesn't make sense".
"We're not seeing the local infrastructure plans for the road networks being ready in time to not only take this type of development, but also the surrounding development of Wilton and Appin," Cr Deeth said.
He said if the DPHI approved the cemetery the road network would reach a "failure point".
When Paul Grierson learnt the Douglas Park cemetery would be assessed as an SSD he sold his "dream home" and moved to nearby Picton.
"I just didn't have another two years of fighting in me," Mr Grierson said.
"I don't want to live with a cemetery, and it's going to happen at some level."
He is one of about four households who no longer live near Douglas Park Drive, partly because of the proposal.
Ms McConchie said "it's a very unfair [and] sad outcome" for the community.
Wollondilly Shire Council is currently reviewing whether developments like cemeteries should be built on rural land in the future.
If any amendments are made to the Local Environmental Plan (LEP), like prohibiting cemeteries in rural zones, the council told the ABC it would only affect development applications lodged after the change is made.
HT Building Pty Ltd said the amended concept plan would be available for public comment in the coming months.