Avonhead Park Cemetery name change

Avonhead Park Cemetery or Avonhead Memorial Cemetery? Following a request from the Friends of Avonhead Cemetery, the Council has asked members of the community what they think.

June 2021: Cemetery to be renamed Avonhead Memorial Cemetery

The Associate Minister of Health Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall has approved a request to change the name of Avonhead Park Cemetery to Avonhead Memorial Cemetery.

 The Waimāero Fendalton-Waimairi-Harewood Community Board decided on the name change on 20 July 2020. Local authorities have statutory authority under the Burial and Cremation Act 1964 to undertake all works in cemeteries, including naming. However, Ministerial approval is required if the Council wants to change the name of a cemetery.

 Dr Verall said: “I recognise the wider significance of the Cemetery as the interment site of the unidentified victims of the 22 February 2011 Christchurch Earthquake, and wish to thank you for your efforts in engaging and consulting with the local community regarding this charge.”

 Full copy of Dr Verrall’s letter. [PDF, 77 KB]

Further information about this project is below.

Avonhead Park Cemetery – Name Change

Thanks for your input into this process. The Waimāero/Fendalton-Waimairi-Harewood Community Board decided to change the name of Avonhead Park Cemetery to Avonhead Memorial Cemetery at its meeting on 20 July 2020.

Deputations from Friends of Avonhead Cemetery and Avonhead Community Group Inc. spoke to the Board in support of the name change.

You can view the meeting report and minutes, which include the staff recommendations and formal resolutions, online at christchurch.infocouncil.biz  (external link)

What happens next?

Council staff will now ask for approval for the name change from the Ministry of Health.

Local authorities have statutory authority under the Burial and Cremation Act 1964 to create and undertake all works in cemeteries including naming. However, Ministerial approval is required if the Council wants to change the name of a cemetery (section 7).

The decision will not become final until Ministerial approval is received.

Avonhead Park Cemetery renaming proposal  -  7 July update

We consulted on the proposal to change the name of Avonhead Park Cemetery to Avonhead Memorial Cemetery between 2 December 2019 and 22 January 2020.

After considering all responses the Council’s project team is recommending that the Waimāero/Fendalton-Waimairi-Harewood Community Board:

1. Resolve not to change the name of Avonhead Park Cemetery.
2. Resolve to request staff to consult on an appropriate commemorative name for the Earthquake interment site within Avonhead Park Cemetery. The name to be proposed in consultation with the Quake Families Trust and Friends of Avonhead Cemetery and brought back to the Community Board for approval.

           or

          3. Resolve not to rename the Earthquake Interment site.

The Community Board will consider the staff report at its meeting on 20 July 2020. 

Summary of feedback

Following the Council’s resolution in February 2019 to consult on the proposed name change, staff engaged with the Quake Families Trust, which supported the name change.

When staff consulted the wider community in December and January, feedback was divided. Of the 114 responses received:

• 51 supported the name Avonhead Memorial Cemetery
• 52 supported the existing name Avonhead Park Cemetery.

              Four of these submitters stated that the interment site for earthquake victims could have  a separate name, such as                      the  Ballantynes Fire Memorial in Bromley Cemetery.

• 10 submissions supported a combined name – Avonhead Park Memorial Cemetery or Avonhead Memorial Park Cemetery.
• One submitter was happy with either name.

More detailed summary of community views and preferences [PDF, 18 KB]

Table of submissions [PDF, 69 KB]

You can read the agenda, staff report and any additional information online at christchurch.infocouncil.biz(external link)  from Wednesday 15 July 2020.  Minutes will be available online three working days after the meeting.

Avonhead Park Cemetery was developed in the late 1970s as a lawn cemetery without visible grave markers to give the cemetery a park-like appearance.  Instead of head

stones, metal tags were installed to identify each plot and a small plaque could be added to the memorial wall.

In 1993, additional areas in the cemetery were created to allow upright headstones. Five years later, small in-ground plaques were permitted in the original lawn cemetery, but these still allowed the open tranquil setting to be preserved.

Following the 22 February 2011 earthquake, the Council designed an interment site for victims at Avonhead Park Cemetery. The central feature of the site was created as a gift from the City to the four unfound victims. The outer circle of the interment site consists of ash beams for use by all victims of the earthquake and their immediate families.

Friends of Avonhead Cemetery have asked the Council for the cemetery to be renamed Avonhead Memorial Cemetery and this is supported by the Quake Families Trust.

Council has other cemeteries with ‘Memorial’ in the title: the Memorial Park Cemetery in Bromley, and the Diamond Harbour Memorial Gardens Cemetery.  There is also the Ballantynes Fire Memorial within the Ruru Lawn Cemetery; ‘Memorial’ is not found in the title of this cemetery.

The city’s Oi Manawa Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial on the edge of the Ōtākaro/Avon River in central Christchurch honours those who lost their lives in the earthquake, and acknowledges those who were seriously injured and everyone who helped in the rescue and recovery
operation.

We want to find out whether you think Avonhead Park Cemetery should
be renamed Avonhead Memorial Cemetery by filling in the feedback form below.   

This follows a Council decision earlier this year that staff should consult on a change of name from Avonhead Park Cemetery to Avonhead Memorial.

Report to Council [PDF, 17 MB]

Friends of Avonhead Cemetery submission to the Waimaero/Fendalton-Waimairi-Harewood Community Board [PDF, 365 KB]

(The Community Board did not make any recommendations to Council on changing the entrance facade or installing headstones in the lawn section of the cemetery. It noted that in accordance with the current Cemeteries Handbook, the interment requirements for the lawn section of the Avonhead Park Cemetery will remain unchanged.)