FOSBC members welcome outcome of BCC cemetery tours review

Although a recent review of night tours in Brisbane City Council cemeteries failed to deliver a regulated curfew, there is much in the outcome to please members of the FOSBC.

A number of community groups felt that the disrespectful use of cemeteries at night was getting out of hand, with many reported instances of trespass, satanic ritualism, ‘ghost investigations’, and vandalism. Organisations such as the FOSBC and the Friends of Balmoral Cemetery called for the strict legal enforcement of existing night-time cemetery curfews as the simplest way to minimise the problem. At the moment, the BCC may be the only local council in Queensland with no cemetery by-laws in place.   

The council reviewed nocturnal cemetery activities following an acrimonious dispute over night tours between community groups and a private business earlier this year. This review was then given further impetus by a spate of mass vandalism in Brisbane cemeteries.

The review was concluded in October, and the council decided not to enforce the curfew as requested, although members of the Greater Brisbane Cemetery Alliance are still working through political and legislative channels to put new laws in place for Brisbane municipal cemeteries.

Key points of review:

• BCC-issued license required to conduct night tours in BCC cemeteries. Annual fee for private businesses is $831, and $1 for non-profit groups.
• Commercial tour operators’ promotion and marketing should focus on history and story-telling. Marketing deemed inappropriate may result in the cancellation of a license. 
• Tour staff must dress in a way that is deemed appropriate by Council.
• Tour content to be approved by Council.
• Licenses do not provide licensee with exclusive use of a cemetery.
• Commercial operators will be required to contribute towards cost of restoration of monuments.
• No 'ghost hunts' allowed.

In the meantime, a number of other issues were addressed in the review. Tracey Olivieri, secretary of the FOSBC, feels that the concerns of her group been totally validated by the outcome of the review.

“Although we did not get the curfew we wanted, this is still a big win for us. The BCC have taken a number of welcome steps to address some real problems,” she said. “We felt that the content and marketing of private tours were inappropriate and likely to attract Satanists and occultists to council cemeteries”, said Mrs Olivieri. “Council have said that from now on, tour staff must dress in an appropriate way, and that tour content and promotions will need to be approved by the BCC. This is a positive step forward.”

“Also, private businesses had free access to public cemeteries to run lucrative night tours. This has now changed with these operators being required to pay an annual license fee of $831, and also a ‘reasonable’ proportion of their revenue is to be collected by council to fund restoration work, to be done in consultation with groups like ours. It is high time these operators were made to pay their way.”    

She added that there had also been problems with unauthorised ‘paranormal’ groups using cemeteries at night, and even advertising their activities on the internet. One group was even featured on a TV show, doing a ‘ghost hunt’ in South Brisbane Cemetery complete with smoke machines. “We felt this was tacky and disrespectful, and are pleased that from now on all unlicensed operators may be charged with trespass. In fact, ‘ghost investigations’ have now been banned completely in BCC cemeteries.”

When asked about the earlier night tour plans of the FOSBC, Mrs Olivieri said, “Several months back some of our members wanted to do night tours as a volunteer fundraiser, and we decided to do a ‘paranormal investigation’. However, when it came to planning the details we realised that these things raise all sorts of issues regarding respecting cemeteries as resting places, and we dropped the whole idea. In addition to this, we received a range of unacceptable threats from a private tour operator who saw us a competition. The bullying did not influence our decision, but it did help bring on the review and in the end we have prevailed as the BCC have made it clear that no one group or business have ‘exclusive access’ to the cemeteries.”  

In the long term, the group is still pushing for a curfew, but in the meantime FOSBC members are debating their options regarding night tours. “Some of us feel that the group should stick with the curfew line, although others feel that if there are to be night tours, then we want to raise standards by offering affordable, historically-accurate and genuinely engaging night tours at South Brisbane.”

The FOSBC will be announcing their decision soon.

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Cemetery laws to be strengthened?

25 May 2010

Changes to the legislation affecting cemeteries are now being investigated by the Department of Justice and Attorney-General following lobbying by members of the Friends of Balmoral Cemetery (FOBC).

The Attorney-General, Cameron Dick, wrote to Kelvin Johnstone and Betty Sinden of the FOBC last week informing them that he has advised his department to investigate options for amending criminal laws to address the issues they raised with him during a meeting in April (on the same day that the case against four alleged Toowong Cemetery vandals was dismissed).

These issues include amending section 469 of the Criminal Code (Wilful Damage) to provide cemeteries as a 'special circumstance' with a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment, and clearly drafting any offences relating to cemeteries to facilitate more effective prosecutions against persons causing damge in cemeteries.

It is unfortunate that it took debacle of the vandals trial to alert government to the need for action, but the recent steps taken by the Attorney-General are a welcome vindication of the efforts of the FOBC and the Friends of South Brisbane Cemetery over the last two years (as part of the Greater Brisbane Cemetery Alliance) to strengthen the weak laws relating to Brisbane City Council cemeteries.

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