3rd June, 2026.
Tonight I speak to oppose the Douglas Park Memorial Park concept plan and stage one State significant development application. The application is currently on public exhibition and proposes a one‑third intensification of the previously approved number of burial plots from 27,000‑odd to 37,000. While I understand the urgent need for cemeteries, this is simply not the right site. I will touch on the geotechnical, social impact bias and traffic issues. I will have many other things to say in my formal submission, but for the sake of brevity I have chosen to focus tonight only on those three aspects of the application. The Douglas Park Drive property is located on a rock shelf that is in proximity to sandstone overhanging the Nepean River. The Nepean is a State significant natural resource. The proposal is incompatible with the site's landscape. It may intercept the groundwater table, be vulnerable to seismic geotechnical earthquakes, and cause noise impacts and unwarranted water run‑off into the Nepean River catchment.
The existing soil is shallow. Solid, high‑strength shale sandstone transition is recorded to exist between 0.6 metres and 1.5 metres below ground level. But when the dirt is scratched using just a fingernail, sandstone can be seen. This site has unique landscape features that should be protected from development. Vague descriptions of the cemetery construction and inconsistencies between the various documents on public exhibition have given rise to concerns about the veracity of the environmental impact statement. As I have said in a previous private member's statement in this House, the current application does little to allay previously publicly declared community concerns about the environmental impacts of the memorial park.
The development application does not give local residents any peace of mind. Residents continue to live in fear that both the environment and their own personal health and quality of life will be adversely impacted in the short‑term and for decades. The community engagement portion of the social impact assessment was solely undertaken by a communications and public relations expert, with no specific credentials in community engagement or social impact assessment. The social impact assessment report was prepared by a member of the Metropolitan Memorial Parks board, appointed by the New South Wales Government. The social impact assessment downplays the widespread public views of the community. Metropolitan Memorial Parks has a vested interest in securing the future land supply of new burial capacity in the Sydney metropolitan area. This bias is contrary to the principles of the recent amendments to the New South Wales Government Social Impact Assessment Guideline adopted in March 2026.
The site is in a rural area bordered by a triangle of three rural‑standard single‑carriageway roads. The land is accessed from two narrow single‑direction lanes, hairpin turns and narrow one‑way traffic conditions at Douglas Park Gorge and Broughton Pass in Appin. This rural setting cannot withstand proposed traffic volumes, slow funeral processions or traffic queue congestion at unsignalised intersections on the regionally significant Wilton, Picton, Camden, Appin and Menangle roads. The Government cannot fulfil infrastructure requirements such as roads, public transport et cetera for the living, and yet this community is being asked to accommodate 37,000 interred dead people and their visitors. The cemetery would divert infrastructure capacity away from existing residential amenity and housing supply.
The priority of the State and local governments is and should remain planning infrastructure to support the greenfield development growth of over 27,000 new homes for the live residential population. The Government and the local community are doing their fair share to accommodate urban growth and should not be burdened with accommodating the burial coffin interments described in this State significant development project. I ask the planning Minister to direct the Independent Planning Commission to hold a public hearing in relation to the Douglas Park Memorial Park. My request is made on the grounds of the complex environmental issues surrounding the project and the terrible impacts it will have on the living community.