Gravestones to be temporarily moved - Giant pine trees put monuments at risk

Up to 60 headstones will be temporarily shifted from Thames’ historic Shortland Cemetery this month as Thames-Coromandel District Council undertakes the mammoth job of removing two dangerous pine trees looming over graves.

An area of the cemetery has been cordoned off after recent storm weather caused large branches of the dead trees to fall onto graves, causing damage and creating a danger to visitors of the cemetery.

TCDC Parks and Reserves Field Rep Chris Howell says several thick branches toppled onto graves in a storm last month but miraculously missed gravestones. If the two pines toppled completely then many more gravestones would be under threat of damage.

“They’re extremely dangerous trees and they could go at any time,” he said. “It’s not an easy job to deal with them. The least disruptive way of removing them would be by helicopter but that would be approximately $25,000, and would involve flying the trunks and branches over power lines.

“We’ve decided to use arborists to fell the pines back onto an area of reserve behind the graves but the contractors couldn’t guarantee that all the big branches would fall away from graves,” he said. “So we’re having to remove the headstones as a precaution.”

Local masons have been approached to remove the at-risk headstones, some of which weigh up to two tonnes. Historic Places archaelogists have been consulted about the project and are supportive of the council’s approach.

The council has highlighted the area of affected graves on its innovative cemetery search tool – available on the TCDC website www.tcdc.govt.nz under ‘services A – Z’ and ‘cemeteries’. Anyone whose loved ones are buried in the cemetery can go online and check whether the headstones will need to be temporarily moved.

It is estimated the work will take about three weeks and all gravestones will be replaced in the condition they were in before the tree removal