Dirt at Ararat Cemetery is being tested for contamination

WorkSafe visited the site in February after an employee notified them that several patches of ground in the old section never grew grass, and he became concerned that the ground might be contaminated. 

Read more: Ararat Cemetery is being tested for contaminated soil.

WorkSafe issued a notice requiring the the Ararat Cemetery Trust have the soil tested, and then act on the results.

A contractor visited the cemetery last Thursday to collect soil samples, and Cemetery Trust chair Bill Jones said that he understood results would take about a fortnight to come back.

"We're in the hands of the consultants," he said. 

Until then, the two suspected areas, which are adjacent to each other in the old section of the cemetery, will remain fenced off to the public.

"Those two sections of the cemetery will remain fenced off until we consider the report, and we've got a decision on what appropriate action - if any - needs to be taken," Mr Jones said. 

Mr Jones said that he did not believe anyone had been impacted in their visits to the cemetery.

"We've had no concerns raised as far as I'm aware, and I think people understand that, if an area is blocked off for potential public safety reasons, they respect that," he said. 

Mr Jones said it was unclear at this stage what would need to happen, including necessary safety protocols and what costs would be involved, if the soil was found to be contaminated.

"You can't even think about those things until you get a report from the consultants," he said.

"We don't even know if there's contamination, how much, we don't know the nature of it, or how best to remediate.

"All that's for later on. All we can do is be responsive to the report."

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