Calls to change Victoria's 'outdated' burial laws to allow for owners to be laid to rest with their pets

Australia Broadcast Center

21 hours ago

Lyn Robinson says she lost her pet dog twice.
The first time was after she laid Deejay — a pit-bull terrier she likens to a sixth child — to rest at a pet cemetery outside Bacchus Marsh.
She visited his grave several times a year, and even recommended the cemetery to friends mourning their own deceased pets.
Then, without warning, she lost him again. The land was sold to developers — and the cemetery, along with Deejay's remains, was destroyed.
"We went there and it had just been bulldozed. All the concrete slabs were gone. The small headstones and plaques had been thrown away. It's like they never existed," she said.
This statue marks the grave of a pet dog at a grave in Castlemaine. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )
Lyn says Deejay's plaque — which she estimates cost up to $1,000 — was never returned, and she has since ordered a replacement to place in the backyard, "just to have something to remember him by".
"We feel like we're going through all the emotions and all the stress of losing him again.
"It's like losing a limb."
It's left her grappling with how this could have happened — and why there isn't a safer option to lay her pets to rest.
Now, advocates are pushing for a change that they say could prevent others from facing the same fate.
An 'impossible' choice
"I broke the law again today. Here's a video of me breaking the law."
That was the text message Deb Tranter sent her local MP, alongside footage of a private ceremony she held for an 86-year-old man laying his dog Molly to rest in the grave beside his late wife.
Deb Tranter has been Chair of the Castlemaine Cemetery Trust since 2018. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )
Under Victorian law, burying an animal in a public cemetery — even in an urn — is illegal.
But Ms Tranter, who manages Castlemaine General Cemetery in central west Victoria, says she has "no problem" breaching the Act if it means burying people with their loved ones — human or otherwise.
"Society now recognises pets as family — but in death, the law states that the pets must stay outside of the cemetery gate. And I think that's really, really harsh and unfair," she said.
"So that, to me, is a really bad law, and bad laws need to be exposed and broken to show how ridiculous they are."
Animal Justice Party MP and member for Northern Victoria, Georgie Purcell, says Ms Tranter is among "hundreds" of cemetery managers quietly doing the same.
"They're doing this because they care so deeply about giving people their final wishes and honouring people after their lives end," Ms Purcell said.
"And they're faced with this impossible decision of breaking the law or not letting someone be buried with someone that they love.
"It's just not good enough."
This owner was buried with their pet over a decade ago. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )
This owner was buried with their pet over a decade ago. (ABC New: Danielle Bonica) This 'treasured little companion' called Tramp was buried with his owner. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )
A plaque marks the resting place of Tramp, a 'treasured little companion'. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
Cemetery volunteers could face hefty fines or even lose their positions if they're caught.
"Every single day, these people are going to work, they are operating under a risk that doesn't have to be there," Ms Purcell said.
Ms Tranter said she's "not worried in the slightest".
"We need to normalise burying pets in the family plot. They are family members.
"So we shouldn't have to keep it a secret."
Victoria dragging its feet
Deb Tranter is no stranger to fighting for the rights of animals.
She was the founder of Oscar's Law, a campaign to end puppy farming in Australia, and has worked alongside Georgie Purcell for many years.
The MP said she was horrified when Ms Tranter first brought the law to her attention, describing it as "heartless" and "outdated".
Within days, she raised it in parliament and asked the government to change it.
"They wrote back to me quite positively and said they'd consider it. But it's been almost a year now, and they've just been dragging their feet since that time."
Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell says the government has been "dragging its feet" on cemetery reforms. ( ABC News: Matthew Holmes )
Earlier this year, fellow Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst succeeded in pushing for reforms to be legislated in New South Wales — the first of their kind in the country.
"They've shown that this is actually not that difficult. It's very clear that this very simple change is just not something that they care about," Ms Purcell said.
The Victorian Government told the ABC it was aware of community interest in the issue but said it was "not currently a legislative priority".
Ms Tranter called the response "really sad".
"It is such a tiny little amendment to the cemetery act, it could be done tomorrow, and it would mean the world to a huge range of people," she said.
"And it'd bring us into line with community expectations and needs."
Who gets a soul?
Lyn Robinson says she would "of course" pursue co-burial if it were an option.
The only legal way for owners to currently be laid to rest with their pets is to either be buried on private land with the owner's permission, or to be scattered with the ashes of a pet outside the gates of a cemetery.
Dr Hannah Gould, a death studies academic at The University of Melbourne, says the legislation has its roots in 19th-century Christian beliefs.
"In the history of our cemeteries, we see a lot of segregation between different groups … and a lot of the time animals have been excluded from that categorisation of who is important," she said.
Dr Hannah Gould is a lecturer at University of Melbourne and researcher with the DeathTech team. ( ABC News: Simon Tucci )
She says this stems from the traditional belief that animals don't have a soul.
"So there's a lot of religious traditions that only those who have souls … are the ones who have the last rites and are buried properly in a cemetery."
Dr Gould says this belief is not universal across other religions. In Buddhism, she said, humans and animals have a "much more equal footing".
Hundreds of pets are believed to have been buried at the pet cemetery in Rowville before it was sold off and destroyed. ( Supplied: Ashton Grave )
She says the exclusionary law is becoming increasingly out of step with the way Australians view their pets.
"We're seeing a really marked shift, particularly between Gen Z and older generations, in who they consider family. More and more, this includes animals — and with that shift comes the expectation they'll be treated the same way in death."
Recent findings from the Australian Institute of Family Studies backs this up, with over half of participants regarding pets as family rather than as property.
The study also found this bond was more common with women and LGBTQIA+ people.
"What I think we're going to see is more and more people wanting to be buried in groups that don't just reflect their blood ties, but also their kind of found family," Dr Gould says.
"And that's something that our cemeteries are going to have to reflect in the future."
'More and more' pet cemeteries destroyed
The pet cemetery at Bacchus Marsh was just one of several which have met a similar demise in the past decade.
The Pets Memorial Gardens in Rowville had been housing the remains of dead pets and champion racehorses for 52 years before it was sold off and demolished.
Former site of Pets Memorial Gardens in Rowville, December 2018. / Plot of land which was formerly Pets Memorial Gardens in Rowville, February 2025.
Ashton Grave, 76, specialises in exhuming pets for owners across Victoria. He says he recovered the remains of about a dozen animals at the Rowville cemetery.
"Some of the owners I spoke to were quite upset about the fact their animals' remains had an unknown future," Mr Graves said.
Ashton Grave says he recovered at least a dozen animal remains from the Rowville pet cemetery.
"Clearly these places get sold for development … and that's the main reason people want me to exhume — they're worried about them being dug up during construction."
Mr Grave said the push to change Victoria's burial laws was an "absolute no-brainer".
"I can't see any problems whatsoever with including a cremated animal in a human grave," he said.
"It just seems very, very sensible".
Georgie Purcell said these cases are exactly what she warned the government of.
"That land can be sold off, ripped up, demolished at any time," she said.
"By allowing joint burials of humans and pets in government-run cemeteries, we know that there's this protection that they can always be there and they can always lie together."
She warns more resting places could be at risk if the government doesn't act soon.
"There's going to be more and more instances of this as that land becomes more valuable," she said.