The chief executive of a cemetery in regional Victoria has been stood down following community protest and criticism over the removal of gravesite decorations and mementos.
Remembrance Parks Central Victoria (RPCV) board chairperson Marg Lewis said it was a unanimous decision to remove CEO Emma Flukes after personal items on gravesites at Bendigo's Eaglehawk Cemetery were removed, and some were binned.
She said the board had decided items like glass, alcohol and dangerous items needed to be removed, but was not aware of the "dreadful" way it was done.
"It's deeply distressing for everyone," Ms Lewis said.
"We understand there has been so much grief and distress caused.
"We are working on ways we can talk to these families and see what we can do to help them.
"The CEO has the responsibility of how the board's policies are implemented."
RPCV, a state government-owned enterprise, was conducting an internal inquiry into why families were not notified that items had to be removed.
Ms Lewis said she found out about how the items were removed through social media.
"I was not aware of what items were being taken," she said.
"I thought we were removing dangerous items."
Ms Lewis said the cemetery trust wanted to make it up to the community and improve communication.
"We recognise the communication has not been good at all," she said.
"We will be reaching out to people in our community and we want to know how we can help them."
No consolation for residents
Resident Pat Warren says the board's comments and actions did not ease the anguish of finding her loved one's graves stripped.
"There was not one thing left on my nephew's or my mum's graves … all gone to the tip," she said.
"They were special things that can't be replaced.
"Why did they do what they did?"
State Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell told ABC Central Victoria she believed the entire board of RPCV needed to go.
"They knew items were being removed from graves … we still have the chair not willing to take responsibility," she said.
"They were supposed to be given 30 days to remove the items, but they were removed early in error. There have been so many different stories coming out.
"It took the board over a week to act on this."
Alcohol and glass banned
Ms Lewis said its grave adornment policy was designed to adhere to occupational health and safety obligations.
"We understand these people have tried to make their memorials a special place but we do have our health and safety obligations," she said.
"We have made sure there'll be no further removal of these items from graves, unless they're alcohol, anything with metal spikes, anything that's broken and any glass items.
"If a glass vase has flowers in them, we'll replace that with one of our plastic ones."
