- The New South Wales government fears Sydney is losing space to bury its dead
- Cemeteries and Crematoria NSW predicts no room for new plots within 32 years
- Muslims and Jews don’t allow cremation and fear space will be lost in five years
Sydney is fast running out of space to bury its dead – as people of two major faiths refuse to cremate their loved ones.
The situation is so dire a New South Wales government report says there will be no room for new plots by 2050.
The Jewish and Muslim communities are even more worried, fearing they will have no space to bury their deceased within five years as their religions forbid cremation.
Sydney is fast running out of space to bury its dead, with Waverley Cemetery almost full
People of the Muslim and Jewish faiths regard cremation as something that is forbidden
More than 50,000 people are either buried or cremated in NSW every year.
Cemeteries and Crematoria NSW has released data showing there are less than 330,000 spaces for new graves, which means there literally won’t be room to bury the dead within 32 years, News Local reports.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff told the newspaper group Jewish people would have no space for new graves within four to six years.
Muslims Australia manager Wasim Raza said there could be room for Muslim graves in the state within just two years, as Muslim-specific of Rookwood Cemetery, near Lidcombe in Sydney’s west, is ‘fast filling up’.
The state government ordered a report into cemetery capacity in Greater Sydney to deal with the graves crisis.
Sydney could run out of space to bury its dead by 2050, a NSW government report predicts
A growing Muslim population in western Sydney is creating another challenge in finding space to bury people whose faith forbids cremation.
In Lakemba, where there is a mosque, 59 per cent of its residents are Muslim, compared with 28.9 per cent in nearby Bankstown.
Across Australia, the proportion of Muslim grew from 2.2 per cent in 2011 to 2.6 per cent in the 2016 Census, creating challenges for city planners when it comes to burial sites.