INDUSTRIAL action by Victorian tipper truck drivers threatens to spoil the party for Bunurong Memorial Park following last week’s announcement of a major expansion of the Bangholme cemetery and crematorium, which came with a promise to put the “fun” back into funerals.
The Transport Workers Union last week organised strike action and picket lines at worksites across Melbourne, including Bunurong Memorial Park, in support of better pay for tipper truck owner-operators.
The memorial park, which was established in 1994 and services Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs including Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula, is undergoing a massive expansion program, with 8500 grave sites to be added to the current 2100 graves.
The expansion will include the planting of 80,000 native trees and the addition of function rooms, three chapels, a florist, cafe and a children’s playground as the memorial park seeks to expand its appeal to include a wide range of social activities, including weddings and conventions.
However, the works require thousands of tonnes of soil to be added to the site on Frankston-Dandenong Rd – and that soil needs to be transported by tipper truck operators who claim they are being underpaid and forced to work in unsafe and unfair conditions.
On Thursday, Health Minister David Davis joined a ceremony marking the start of the expansion works at Bunurong, while outside, TWU-aligned tipper truck operators picketed the worksite.
TWU organiser Luke McCrone said tipper truck owner-drivers were being driven to the wall by inadequate pay which was making their jobs unviable and forcing them to work in unsafe conditions.
The drivers own their trucks and are paid by plant hire companies on a per-load basis. But that amount is not enough to cover maintenance and repayments on their trucks. The union has been lobbying for the past four months for a 10 per cent pay rise on behalf of the drivers but the plant hire companies are yet to agree, despite most acknowledging the need for a review of pay conditions.
Mr McCrone said the pay demands by tipper truck drivers were far from excessive and that underpaying owner drivers threatened to create unsafe conditions on worksites and public roads.
“They are only asking for what is fair because at the moment, they can’t make ends meet,” Mr McCrone said. “What that means is that drivers may be forced to forgo vital maintenance of their vehicles or put off replacing tyres because they simply can’t afford it, and that’s clearly not a situation anyone wants to see.
“Drivers are forced to rush between jobs to get that extra load, which means taking shortcuts and that makes our roads more dangerous for everyone. It’s not a situation these owner drivers want to be in, nor one they should be forced into to simply put food on the table.”
Bunurong was among about 40 worksites targeted by the TWU last week, with rolling industrial action tipped to continue throughout this week.
Back inside the cemetery, Mr Davis told officials and guests the investment by Bunurong’s operator, Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, would transform the memorial park into the largest in Melbourne’s south-east and meet the needs of the community for the next 70 years.
“The 101-hectare Bunurong Memorial Park currently has about 2100 graves, 260 mausoleum crypts and 1370 cremation memorial spots available but this will expand,” Mr Davis said. “Given that our population continues to increase, it is important that we have the right services and facilities in place, now and in the future.”
However, Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust CEO Jonathan Tribe said the project was far more than just an expansion, outlining a strategy to reposition the cemetery as a major social hub that would be visited by thousands of people a day, including wedding parties, sporting groups and “networking breakfast” attendees.
“Our vision for Bunurong is to transform a traditional cemetery into a ‘new age’ memorial park visited by hundreds of thousands of people each year,” Mr Tribe said.
“We want to demystify cemeteries and get people to regard them as great community assets – green, relaxing places where you can socialise with family and friends. That’s how people in the Victorian era regarded cemeteries.
Mr Tribe said master plan included landscaping and design work that would promote a “distinctive Australian theme”, with the regenerated indigenous natural environment to provide habitat for local fauna. The master plan retains the crematorium, mausoleum and Greek Orthodox Church, while existing “interments” will not to be impacted by the development.
The first of five expansion stages, which is schedules to be completed by 2016, will see the construction of “multi-faith meditation rooms” as well as landscaping works.
Mr Tribe said SMCT research had shown that in the 1860s, about 5000 people would visit the Melbourne General Cemetery on a summer Sunday, with visitors “picnicking in the gardens and promenade along the wide pathways”.
“In the twentieth century, people developed a morbid attitude towards cemeteries,” Mr Tribe said. “Bunurong Memorial Park is a community space that will help change that perception.”
First published in the Frankston Times
