This article was updated 4th June: In a major breakthrough for the preservation of Mapleton Cemetery, Sunshine Coast Council has agreed to fully fund a $32,000 upgrade to install a protective granite veneer on the niche wall. The decision marks a significant pivot from Council’s initial response, which tasked the Mapleton and District Community Association (MADCA) with sourcing the five-figure sum themselves. Following persistent advocacy from local resident Donna Klease and intervention by Councillor David Law, Council will now foot the entire bill for the project, which will also involve a formal consultation process with families of those interred before construction begins. The upgrade has officially been integrated into the schedule for upcoming works, with timing currently being planned. For Donna, who has been pushing for this attention for months, it is a meaningful step; and a sign that the community’s voice has carried some weight.
When Donna Klease spoke to this publication last month, she was anxious. Her father’s ashes were making their way from Dallas, Texas, for interment in the Mapleton Cemetery niche wall, the same wall she had described as mouldy, dirty, and unworthy of the occasion. She had written to Councillor David Law. She had asked the community to email the Council’s cemetery team. And she was waiting.
She doesn’t have to wait for the cleaning anymore.
Since the original story ran, Sunshine Coast Regional Council’s Cemetery Services team has completed a pressure clean of the niche wall, the footpath, and the gazebo area. Repairs to a damaged arm on the seating are also in the works, with timing currently being planned. For Donna, who has been pushing for this attention for months, it is a meaningful step; and a sign that the community’s voice has carried some weight.
“Thank you to everyone who sent an email,” she said. “It made a difference.”
But the bigger vision, a four-poster gabled roof over the niche wall, in keeping with the heritage character of the existing gazebo, is still at the proposal stage, and the road ahead involves more than goodwill.
A Mountain of Requirements
In correspondence with Council’s cemetery team, Donna received a detailed outline of what any formal shelter proposal would need to include: concept drawings showing scale, materials, and colours; evidence of community consultation with families of those interred in the niche wall; a long-term maintenance and cleaning plan with costings; and confirmation that the structure meets relevant Australian Standards.
It is a comprehensive list for a volunteer to compile, and Donna is a volunteer. She is not a developer, an engineer, or a draftsman. She is a descendant of the men who named this town, trying to ensure her father’s resting place is worthy of him.
At April’s Mapleton and District Community Association meeting, members put their heads together. One encouraging lead: the existing cemetery gazebo was a kit structure, and the same supplier may offer a compatible gabled roof kit, potentially simplifying both design and approvals. A name was suggested as someone who may assist with concept plans. MADCA is exploring grant opportunities and has discussed approaching the Mayor, CEO, and Councillor David Law directly with a formal proposal.
Donna is also reaching out through community channels, the Sunshine Valley Gazette, Glasshouse News, and Facebook, to consult with families who have loved ones in the niche wall area, whose support will be central to any submission.
The case for the shelter is practical as well as aesthetic. As MADCA’s Peter Gamgee has pointed out, repeated pressure washing Council performs on its maintenance cycle, gradually erodes the brickwork and mortar. A roof over the wall would reduce that cycle of damage and ultimately save Council the cost of repairing what the cleaning itself wears away.
The Lions’ Long Road
Donna has not been alone in her efforts. The Blackall Range Lions Club has been quietly working at the cemetery since mid-2024, though their path to picking up a single hand tool took the better part of a year to clear.
The Lions’ interest in Mapleton Cemetery goes back to 2019, when the club first approached Council with a proposal to assist with maintenance and to install a history board and interment map on the shelter shed. COVID put those plans in limbo. It was the wave of community concern on social media in 2022, residents posting about the state of the grounds, that prompted them to try again.
What followed was a twelve-month process of paperwork and compliance before a working bee could begin. Council was required to produce updated Safe Work Method Statements. The Lions had to obtain $20 million in public liability insurance, complete a Community Land Permit Regulated Activity Application, undergo safety inductions, and register individually as volunteers through Council’s ‘My Impact’ app before each visit.
“Each time we individually had to register, it was quite tedious,” the club noted.
It is worth acknowledging why these requirements exist. Council carries a genuine duty of care to anyone working on its land, and consistent safety standards protect both volunteers and the organisation. But the cumulative weight of that compliance, for a volunteer group that wanted to pull weeds and clear fallen branches, is considerable.
When the Lions finally commenced work in July 2024, followed by two further working bees in September and November, the results were substantial. The perimeter of the cemetery, heavily overgrown with bracken fern, vines, and accumulated debris, was completely cleared by hand. No power tools are permitted under Council guidelines, meaning whipper snippers, chainsaws, and water blasters were all off the table. Four tipper truckloads of debris were removed. Broken glass was collected from around the graves. Dumped rubbish was cleared from a corner of the grounds.
Among the more sobering discoveries: several of memorial plaques found at the base of large eucalypts along the perimeter, buried under years of vegetation, unseen and unvisited.
The Lions were careful to stay within their permissions. Gravestones were not touched; cleaning or moving a headstone requires consent from the relevant family. The niche wall cleaning was left to Council’s own team. “We found the Cemetery Services Department very obliging to work with at each working bee,” the club said.
Since their third formal working bee in November 2024, the Lions have not returned and like many volunteer organisations on the Range, they carry significant commitments across the community and have limited capacity for regular visits. But their vision for the cemetery has not dimmed. They still hope to install a history and interment map board and have floated the idea of a “Friends of Mapleton Cemetery” group, a dedicated community identity, that could sustain the work into the future. But their vision for the cemetery has not dimmed. They still hope to install a history and interment map board and have floated the idea of a “Friends of Mapleton Cemetery” group, a dedicated community identity, that could sustain the work into the future.
A Blueprint Beginning to Take Shape
The most immediate practical need for the niche wall proposal has been a set of concept drawings, without them, a formal submission to Council cannot proceed. That may be closer than it was. Donna believes she has identified a draughtsperson who may be able to assist, and while nothing is confirmed yet, it is an encouraging sign that the pieces are beginning to come together.
The interment of Donna’s father, Colin Smith, carrying the name of the men who founded this town, is expected later this month. The niche wall will be clean for the occasion. Whether it will one day be sheltered, heritage-appropriate, and worthy of what this community has always hoped for is still a question being answered, one email and one working bee at a time.
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