Dunedin Cemetery has been in the planning stage since as far back as the 1990s. However, it was not until late last year that roads were built on the site, and work was under way to ensure it opens in November next year, Dunedin City Council botanic garden and cemeteries team leader Alan Matchett said yesterday.
The council bought the property in 1996, and went through resource consent processes in the same decade.
Mr Matchett said while rural cemeteries in towns such as Waikouaiti and Middlemarch still had room for burials, city cemeteries such as Andersons Bay and the Northern, Southern and Green Island cemeteries had come to the end of their life.
The Green Park cemetery on Brighton Rd had been fulfilling the needs of the metropolitan area, but that would also be full in the next 18 months.
Before the opening, for which there would be a ceremony of some sort, landscaping and tree-planting would be done, an entrance created and a car park built, Mr Matchett said.
Operational budgets were yet to be decided, but the roadway had cost $380,000.
Places cannot be booked at the cemetery until a death has occurred, because the council does not pre-sell plots in case all the space becomes locked up.
"We just try to keep it fair for everyone," Mr Matchett said.
Cremations were more popular than burials in Dunedin, which had about three cremations to every burial. That ratio was reversed in the North Island, because of the different cultural makeup of the northern population, he said.
