About 250 residents have protested outside a regional Victorian cemetery after mourners were banned from placing mementos on loved ones' graves and existing items were removed.
Grieving friends and family at Bendigo's Eaglehawk Cemetery today called on Remembrance Parks Central Victoria (RPCV) to overturn new rules that stopped them from decorating gravesites.
The new rules ban people from placing a range of items on graves, including ceramic vases, solar lights, photo frames or pebbles, and require existing items be removed by February 5.
RPCV, a state government-owned enterprise, runs 11 cemeteries across the region, as well as sites in Sunbury and Shepparton.
A petition against the change has gained more than 10,000 signatures.
Decorations already removed
Some decorations had already been removed and others were found in gravesite bins, with residents quick to voice their heartbreak.
Bendigo's Lisa Kidman lost her 17-year-old daughter nine years ago to suicide and regularly visited her grave at Eaglehawk Cemetery.
She said her daughter loved guinea pigs and dolphins, and her grave had been decorated with statues of the animals, along with solar lights and flowers.
"One of her friends called me and said, 'I don't know how to tell you this but everything is gone. The guinea pig statue you ordered nine years ago, the dolphins — they're all gone'," Ms Kidman said.
"My parents, who are also now dead, also left trinkets on her grave.
"Those items are irreplaceable, they're just gone with no care towards any of us."
Ms Kidman said she broke her ankle while visiting the cemetery the previous day after falling in a hole that was covered by a patch of green grass.
"I refused to not come today," she said from a wheelchair.
"I got myself out of the hospital against all of their wishes.
"They're [RPCV] worried about solar lights, they're worried about dolphin trinkets, they're worried about vases that have been there for 20 years … not holes in the ground? Get a grip."
A 'deeply emotional issue'
A government spokesperson said RPCV was responsible for the management, operation, and maintenance of its cemeteries.
"The Victorian government expects that the trust is respectful of grieving families' adornments and valuables and communicates any changes appropriately and respectfully," they said.
An RPCV trust spokesperson acknowledged its new rules were a "deeply emotional issue".
They said the move was to help the "health and safety of its staff and visitors" as well as "protect the environment and support the different cultural and religious needs of the wide range of people in Victorian communities".
The spokesperson said it was also working with families who had "unsafe and non-compliant seats" installed at gravesites
They acknowledged the organisation needed to better explain to families what was permitted and not-permitted at sites.
Opposition MP calls for sacking
But State Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell called on Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas to sack the cemetery trust board for its lack of compassion.
"It's just a sudden change in direction that hasn't been accepted well by the community," she said.
"They manage this facility on behalf of the communities where the cemeteries are, and they should be showing more compassion.
"Their own values and mission statement say they will work with the community and they will manage these facilities compassionately.
"I think there's a pattern of behaviour here, with their price rise last year, and now this, that shows they're not willing to work with the community."
