The SMH reports the state government is considering a submission from a public trust managing the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, which incorporates Botany cemetery, to expand into Crown land used for Chinese market gardens.

The seven hectares of land next to the cemetery were listed on the state heritage register in 1999 for significance to the Sydney Chinese community.

But the trust says the land could be used to meet a critical shortage of burial space, particularly for the Aboriginal, Greek Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim communities. ''We are landlocked and clearly under pressure from some communities which only choose burial for cultural or religious purposes,'' said the chief executive of the park, George Passas.

The submissions have motivated a number of writers to the editor at the SMH, under the heading "Fatal flaw in digging up the dead to feed the living"

 

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