Sunshine Coast Council has confirmed it is investigating the replacement of the Mapleton Cemetery Ashes Wall, and will spend September and October contacting burial rights holders and families about the proposed works, according to a Project News notice issued in August.
The notice, numbered P-R0609, says the existing two-sided brick wall would be reconfigured into a single-sided memorial wall built from Grey Noble granite, with every niche facing inward toward the cemetery rather than the current arrangement, which has niches opening onto both the cemetery and the adjoining reserve. Council states the change is intended to improve the wall’s durability, appearance and long-term maintenance, and to preserve capacity for future ash interments.
If the project proceeds, it will be funded through the Division 10 Minor Capital Works Program 2026/27, the notice says.
Division 10 Councillor David Law is quoted in the notice saying the cemetery holds a special place in the community and that the project will help ensure the ashes wall remains a respectful and lasting place of remembrance. He said Council was committed to keeping burial rights holders and loved ones informed throughout the planning process.
Cr Law Briefs Residents
Cr Law addressed the proposal directly at the Mapleton and District Community Association’s general meeting on Wednesday (2nd September), telling members Council was actively seeking feedback and wanted to hear from everyone with burial rights at the cemetery, whether in the niche wall or elsewhere on the site. He said Council was contacting everyone on record, but acknowledged its records were incomplete in places, since some rights holders had moved away or died without updating their details.
He also addressed community concern directly, saying he was aware of some misinformation circulating about the project. Strict rules governed how remains were handled during works of this kind, he said, and those rules would be followed in full, including reinspection once work was complete.
Cr Law told the meeting the wall replacement would increase the cemetery’s overall capacity rather than simply renew the existing structure. He said the current niche wall was approaching the end of its usable life and would eventually become impossible to clean and maintain, regardless of how many spaces remained unused within it. Renewing the wall now, ahead of that point, was intended to secure additional capacity for ash interments on the range before the existing structure failed outright, he said.
Those comments go some way to answering how Council is approaching the balance between preserving existing memorials and creating new capacity, though Cr Law did not give a specific figure for the proposed wall’s niche count at the meeting.
What Remains Unclear
Cr Law’s comments to MADCA sit alongside an earlier update he gave the association’s 3rd June general meeting, at which he said Council would fully fund a $32,000 granite veneer for the niche wall. The August Project News notice describes the wall replacement in more cautious terms, as a project still under investigation, with funding contingent on the project proceeding. Whether the $32,000 figure discussed in June remains current, and what it is intended to cover, has not yet been confirmed publicly.
Capacity also remains only partly resolved. A Range Community News count of Council’s own published photographs of the existing two-sided brick wall identified approximately 120 niches, of which 59 currently carry plaques. Those figures have not been verified against Council’s records. The design drawing included with the August notice appears to show a grid of 10 rows by 13 columns, or 130 niches, though Council has labelled that image as illustrative only. Cr Law’s confirmation that overall capacity will increase supports that reading, but the exact final count, and how many existing plaques and interments will transfer directly, has not been stated.
Notably absent from both the August notice and Wednesday’s meeting was any mention of a roofed shelter, gazebo or weather protection near the wall, an idea that has circulated in the community since Mapleton descendant Donna Klease first called publicly for restoration work in March. She had asked for a heritage-style, gable-roofed structure to protect the wall and its bronze plaques from moisture and dust generated by the unsealed section of Delicia Road. A Council spokesperson told Range Community News at the time that there were no current plans to install a shelter or roof, though any future low-cost improvements would be considered as part of a broader, network-wide approach guided by the Sunshine Coast Cemetery Plan 2019-2028. It is not yet clear whether a shelter was assessed and excluded during design of the granite wall, or left for separate consideration.
A Cemetery With a Long Memory
Mapleton Cemetery sits on Delicia Road, opposite Linda Garrett Circuit and near Mapleton National Park. Council records place its establishment in 1891, though the site was formally gazetted in 1900 and received its first burial the following year. Range Community News’ earlier reporting established that the first interment following gazettal was Hannah Smith, grandmother of brothers Thomas and William Smith, who had selected land at Mapleton in 1889 and went on to found and name the town through their orchard enterprises. Thomas and William Smith were among five original trustees appointed to manage the cemetery, alongside Edgar Harold Jeffs, Joseph Francis Power and Frederick Lounds. By 1955 the site had fallen into neglect and a fire had swept through the grounds, with Frederick Lounds the only original trustee still living.
Roughly 180 people are buried or interred at the cemetery, among them the settlers, orchardists and mountain families who shaped Mapleton and Montville.
Having Your Say
Council is asking anyone who holds burial rights, has family interred at Mapleton Cemetery, or is interested in future ash interment options, to contact Cemetery Services on cemeteries@sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au or (07) 5459 2300, quoting “Mapleton Cemetery Ashes Wall Project.” Cr Law told Wednesday’s meeting the Project News notice had been circulated to the community association and encouraged members to submit feedback directly. Residents who previously raised concerns under the earlier reference number CST2600028R may want to confirm with Council whether that correspondence has been linked to the current file, or whether a fresh submission is required.
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