WORK will begin on new columbarium walls and gardens at Scarborough Cemetery from next week.

Scarborough Cemetery has a long and important history with burials at the site dating back to the 1890s.

For the past two years, the cemetery has been at capacity for new interments, including ash placements. The Scarborough Cemetery is currently home to over a thousand columbarium memorials.

Wollongong City Council’s extensive construction project will increase the columbarium memorial space and allow for up to 500 new ash placements in one of the Illawarra’s most scenic cemetery locations.

During construction, a section of the cemetery will be temporarily closed to allow a safe worksite. This area will include the Garden of Memory (section 1 and 2) as well as the Seaview Wall. This section of the cemetery is located on the western side.

For more information, see here for a map of the cemetery.

The rest of the Scarborough Cemetery and road will remain open to the public during construction.

Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said that the new section would allow more people to place the ashes of their loved ones.

“We’ve been unable to place new ashes in the Scarborough Cemetery for some time now,” he said.

“The existing Seaview Wall is a repository for the cremated remains of loved ones.

“This project, to expand the cemetery, will have a small but important benefit for our community as we have received many enquiries from people who are interested in memorialising their loved one at this beautiful, coastal location,” Cr Bradbery said.

“At the same time, we will do our best to minimise the impact of this work on the families who visit the cemetery to pay their respects. We need to close a portion of the cemetery during construction so that we can safely build the new area.

“We appreciate this may have an impact on a small number of families. Please know that we’ll be taking care not to disturb any ashes already placed at the cemetery and that we will reopen this part of the cemetery as soon as we can.”

This project is expected to be completed by late April 2024.

For more information, call Council’s Memorial Gardens Office on (02) 4227 7780.

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