Thieves steal trees, roses and furniture from Bathurst cemetery

In the latest incident, unknown thieves have made off with a 2.5 metre tree over the weekend, with the damage discovered by staff on Monday.

The golden honey locust had been freshly planted as part of staff's development of a new release section at the cemetery, but the theft was not the first by heartless thieves.

Norwood Park Bathurst managing director Stephen Beer said the cemetery had also had flowers and furniture stolen and had been forced to consider upgrading its security to combat the offenders.

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"They take our roses when we plant them and in the past we have also lost about $5000 worth of on-site furniture which was reported to the police," Mr Beer said.

"Thieves have also taken several memorials that have been left at the site by families and we have had one lady ask us to put cameras around the children's area because items keep being taken.

"We are now looking at doing that."

Mr Beer said the constant stream of thefts had an impact on both the families who were visiting the cemetery to honour their loved ones and also Norwood Park staff who had been working hard to make the area something special.

"People just don't seem to respect grief," Mr Beer said.

"[The thefts] are very annoying for our people and also very upsetting.

"We have designed the whole place from just an open paddock with no chapel and no crematorium when we took over management of the cemetery to what is now with all the driveways and all the plantings."

Norwood Park took over management of the whole cemetery when the company opened Bathurst's first crematorium in 2013, following years of lobbying by the community.

Current Bathurst mayor Bobby Bourke had been one the driving forces behind the campaign to have a crematorium established in Bathurst to save grieving families the burden of having to travel to Orange to farewell loved ones.

Mr Beer said Cr Bourke had remained a strong supporter of the cemetery and also praised the work of Bathurst Regional Council's manager of recreation Mark Kimbel.

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