For the last six months five of our family members have been lying in unmarked graves in a cemetery that looks like a war zone, not the peaceful rural cemetery it once was.
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It was last July that MidCoast Council knocked down/removed more than 60 headstones and plaques at The Bight Cemetery.
Families will never know how or why this happened, nor who was responsible, as the report that the general manager tabled to council late last year, based on a $13,000 independent investigation, reported not a thing that was not already known.
There are very clear guidelines about how council should have proceeded, back in July, with all headstones, but particularly those that are 50 or more years old.
Any grave with a date of 1969 or earlier falls under National Trust heritage guidelines and requires 'suitably qualified heritage advisors' to consult with owners of the monument (families) and cemetery authorities (MCC). None of this happened.
Families have now received a letter from MCC with a Draft Restoration Action Plan for the Bight Cemetery.
I for one will be demanding a professional heritage stone mason be employed by MCC to restore our family's two heritage headstones.