Cemeteries Act 1986 (WA)

Western Australia

Western Australia

Cemeteries Act 1986

An Act to provide for the declaration and management of cemeteries, the establishment, constitution and functions of cemetery boards, the licensing of funeral directors, the regulation of burials, the repeal of the Cemeteries Act 1897 and for connected purposes.

This Act may be cited as the Cemeteries Act 1986.

This Act shall come into operation on a day to be fixed by proclamation.

• (1)

  In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears — 

alleged offender means a person to whom an infringement notice has been given under section 63;

authorised person means a person —

• (a)

  authorised under section 64 to give infringement notices; or

• (b)

  appointed under the Local Government Act 1995 section 9.10(2) for the purposes of section 63;

Board means a cemetery board established under section 7 or deemed to have been established under this Act and in relation to a cemetery means the Board responsible for the care, control and management of that cemetery;

burial, except in the definition of funeral and in sections 11, 12 and 43(2), includes the disposal of ashes of a dead body in a cemetery after cremation;

cemetery means land declared by the Governor to be a cemetery under section 4(1) or deemed to be a cemetery under this Act and so far as the context allows includes a disused burial ground and a closed cemetery;

dead body means the body of a human being who was born alive and also means the body of a child of not less than 28 weeks’ gestation that was still born;

funeral means the burial or cremation of a dead body;

holder in relation to a grant of right of burial includes a person for the time being appearing to the Board to be the holder of that grant;

infringement notice means a notice given under section 63;

licence means a funeral director’s licence issued or deemed to have been issued under Part IV;

member means a member of a Board;

memorial includes headstone, plaque, tombstone, monumental work, inscription, kerbing, enclosure and any other fixture or thing commemorating a grave or the placement of ashes;

redevelopment area means a portion of land in a cemetery which is the subject of a redevelopment scheme or proposed redevelopment scheme under Division 4 of Part V;

right of burial means the right to use a specified area of a cemetery for burial.

• (2)

  Notwithstanding the definition of dead body in subsection (1), a Board may in a particular case deem to be a dead body for the purposes of this Act the body of a child of not less than 20 weeks’ gestation that was still born and where a Board so deems this Act shall apply accordingly.

[Section 3 amended: No. 14 of 1996 s. 4; No. 16 of 2019 s. 96.]