The exhibition period has begun on 13th May 2026 and it is now time for the council and community to lodge submissions on the NSW Portal BEFORE THE 9TH OF JUNE:
https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/projects/douglas-park-memorial-park-concept-plan-and-stage-1 

Residents of Douglas Park and members of the Reject Douglas Park Cemetery and Crematorium group have been cognisant of the many obstacles to the proposal for many years now:

* Six out of the ten guidelines set by Cemeteries and Crematories NSW are not met and should have cancelled the project when the developer devised it years ago after other attempts to develop the property failed due to lack of sewerage: 1/adjacent to residences; 2/not easily accessible; 3/affected by Hume Highway noise; 4/is in high bushfire zone; 5/insufficent soil depth; 6/contains critically endangered ecology;

* there is a very high likelihood it will cause the Nepean River gorge to shut down and further congest the already severe peak-hour bottleneck of the Picton Road/M31 interchange. Most clientele have been sourced from the Sydney metropolitan area over forty kilometres away and GPS services will guide them over the gorge as the fastest route, potentially one hundred cars for each of the referenced six services a day, arriving and leaving at the same time. 

* the soil depths over the entire site fall far short of the required depth to ensure 900mm between top of coffin and surface. The developer has to crush hectares of sandstone rock to manufacture the bare minimum but that still places thousands of cadavers on top of a rock shelf that has been subject to micro fracturing from mine subsidence. This will logically be made worse by extensive excavation and cause decomposing body remains to leach into tributaries and aquifiers and ultimately the Nepean River.

* Crematoriums are highly emitting toxic facilities that should be carefully and intentionally located well away from residences, home to small children, the ill and elderly, as well as endangered ecologies and a 70m elevation drop may well cause pollution to settle in the river and village valley 

* Marketing the facility as a "park" for locals to enjoy is a misleading and cynical ploy in our opinion. Residents already have the river banks to enjoy a swim and canoe ride and prefer to retain this location as a pollution-free venue over a fantastical suggestion that riding a bike around a graveyard and crematorium is in any way a desirable substitute.

* There is no public transport which disadvantages large sectors of the population without access to a private vehicle. The suggestion that shuttle buses from the nearest train stations is not viable as there is a 3-tonne limit on the gorge and Picton train station is 14 kilometres away on the other side of the congested interchange. References to orbital 2 are also invalid as it is multiple years away with funding yet to be allocated. "Not in my lifetime" was the estimation of the Minister.

* Alarmingly, the Social Impact Assessment has been authored by a board member of the Metropolitan Memorial Parks, an organisation whose aim aligns with that of the proponent, who has engaged her services for this development. This represents an irreconcilable conflict of interest, in our opinion, evidenced in the perceived positive impacts for stakeholders from far afield, over the devastation felt by local residents, summarised as "somewhat emotional" and arising from "general superstition".  This contribution is entirely at odds with the Social Impact Assessment Guideline for State Significant Projects and it is our fervent view that a severe injustice would be visited upon the tax-paying residents of the region if it is permitted to persuade consenting authorities. 

* The only real justification relied upon for the development is the oft-quoted findings of the 2021 11th Hour Report which outlines a modelled shortfall in burial capacity for Sydney Metropolitan areas, specifically, Central Sydney, Northern Sydney, the Eastern Suburbs, and then Southern Sydney in that order. The Minister for Wollondilly has referenced an interment figure of approximatley 54 for our region per year, a figure well-catered for with our own facilities. This rural, remote and difficult-to-access Site is simply the wrong location, on all possible measures, to solve any future problems experienced in the city of Sydney.