Please help to maintain cemeteries

Published 03 Oct 2022

Many residents spend time visiting their loved ones in our districts 18 lawn cemeteries, to cherish the memories they have. We all strive to provide a safe and welcoming environment for people to reflect and pay respect. It is only natural for family members to dress headstones with flowers and decorate them with meaningful tributes and we encourage people to continue to do so, but please consider the following protocols:

Plants, tributes and decorations should be on the headstone or the concrete berm of a plot and not on the grass around it, this ensures they are not disturbed as our contractors conduct grounds maintenance.

Flowers, tributes and decorations may be left on the soil of a plot for up to 6 months, after this they must be placed on the headstone or concrete berm of the plot to allow for proper and respectful maintenance to be conducted.

The high winds our District can experience means that decorations can be blown off graves and damaged, we cannot ensure these will be returned to the correct grave.

Placing wood, brick or similar borders over the grassed area of a grave impacts the overall maintenance of our lawn cemeteries and there is a risk that the plot decorations may be damaged when new plots are prepared.

All our cemeteries are classed as lawn cemeteries which means that the final state of the burial areas will be grass in front of the headstone. We would appreciate your help in maintaining our cemeteries to the high standard our residents expect.  
For questions email: cemeteries@tararuadc.govt.nz

To find out more about our cemeteries you can read our Cemetery Bylaw and our Public Cemetery Guide which can be found on our Cemeteries information page.