Volunteering is a great way to connect with your local community and help make it a better place. Not only does it benefit us all, but it can also be a deeply rewarding experience which has social and health benefits – volunteers often live happier, healthier lives!

Our Trust Members are also volunteers who are actively involved in the strategic planning and management of the cemetery. However, as there is always a great deal to be done at the cemetery, we really appreciate having other community members come and help out.

If you have an interest in our cemetery and would like to come along to one of our working bees or get involved in some other way, we would love to hear from you.

All works will and must be supervised to ensure everyone’s safety and to help prioritise our tasks.

For further details please contact our Trust Administrator.

Bellbrae Cemetery is run by a group of volunteer trust members who are actively involved in the management of the cemetery. The trust can have a maximum of 11 members, and due to natural attrition we are often looking for additional community members to join our trust team. Trust members are responsible for administering the cemetery and are governed by the Department of Health.

There is a governance component involved in being a trust member, but there is also a variety of other skills and experiences that are considered highly beneficial for prospective trust members. This includes community service / board experience, skills in the areas of administration, record keeping, policy maintenance, financial understanding and management, information technology, project management, knowledge of the funeral sector, marketing, business management, landscape maintenance and horticulture.

Apart from quarterly trust meetings, our trust members are also actively involved in running the cemetery, including attendance at interments, meeting with families in the cemetery setting to facilitate plot sales, involvement with focus groups, attendance at working bees as well as general tidying and maintenance of the cemetery grounds.

If you are interested in becoming a trust member or would like to find out any more information, please contact our Trust Administrator.

Keeping the records of a pioneer and community cemetery up to date is always a challenge but also rewarding. In older cemeteries it is not uncommon for some details to have been lost or found to be missing for a whole range of reasons. The Bellbrae Cemetery Trust is continually searching and researching to fill any gaps in our data. We do this because it is a requirement of our governing body and to meet the needs of our community.

How can you help?

If you have family buried at Bellbrae or perhaps have pre-purchased a plot, please keep in touch and let us know if your contact details change.

Many plots were purchased several years ago and since then people have moved, landlines have been disconnected, internet was invented and many of us have started using just mobile phones.

We also value getting copies of original documents to crosscheck our data – so scanned copies would be gratefully received at bellbraect@gmail.com or posted to Bellbrae Cemetery Trust, 1 Cemetery Road, Bellbrae VIC 3228.