![\"Carnarvon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2232bdf5829d62385c3ad15d13cf201548e37d48.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cI will have to play somewhere else, which is always a challenge. It was incredibly convenient to have the course across the road,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve played there for 30 years. I\u2019ve made friends there, I socialise there, I also go with my two uncles and my cousin. It\u2019s somewhere special to me, I really love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baker also predicted the new cemetery would cause house prices to plummet in the surrounding suburban streets because \u201cno one will want to buy a house near a cemetery\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will severely reduce the price, and it throws my family\u2019s financial future up in the air. If prices fall, and we, for whatever reason, have to sell, we won\u2019t be able to get into the market anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
The decision to begin community consultation on the new cemetery has sparked backlash, with protesters outside Parliament House on Wednesday and expected in Coleman Park at the end of the month.<\/p>\n
Neighbours aren\u2019t the only ones upset. Members of Lidcombe Waratah FC, which plays next door at Coleman Park, are also upset they might be forced to play and train next to a cemetery.<\/p>\n
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Carnarvon Golf Club in Lidcombe is earmarked for conversion into a cemetery.Credit: Wolter Peeters<\/p>\n
Caroline Staples is a lifetime member of the club, having coached, managed and played there, and said she thought it might be \u201cdisturbing\u201d to players if the conversion went ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wouldn\u2019t want to play a robust game of sport with mates near a cemetery. I feel like it would be disrespectful, I don\u2019t think anyone would play any game near a cemetery,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would feel like it was looming over us, and that we were next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Staples said there were few alternatives to Coleman Park in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you live here, you pretty much have no other choice. So if they do build the cemetery there, all the kids here will have no other choice but to play and train next to a cemetery. It would be strange.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf all the spaces in Sydney, they had to do it near our park? Couldn\u2019t they have picked somewhere that didn\u2019t already have a large cemetery down the road?\u201d<\/p>\n
A new Crown-owned cemetery has not been built in the heart of Sydney for over 80 years, despite huge growth in population, demand and changes in the city\u2019s cultural makeup.<\/p>\n
According to MMP, more than half of deaths in Greater Sydney require land for interment, either through burial or ash-interment, which has created a crisis for burial space. They said more than 1000 sites were considered before deciding on Carnarvon.<\/p>\n
They also said that there was strong demand for local burial services, pointing to the 66 per cent of people who were buried or buried a loved one at Rookwood in the last two years living within 10 kilometres of the cemetery.<\/p>\n
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A spokesperson for Lands and Property Minister Steve Kamper said the government welcomes the decision to begin community consultation on the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NSW government has directed Crown cemetery operators to identify options to significantly increase the supply of new burial space in Sydney. We also directed that community consultation must be done on any preferred sites,\u201d he said, adding a proposal would then be put to the NSW government.<\/p>\n
\u201cSydney is in a burial space crisis. Cemeteries across Sydney are running out of space with estimates they will need to begin turning away some faith groups in less than two years.\u201d<\/p>\n