ABC News (AU)
· collected 2026-09-16 · by Madigan Landry and Stan Shaw
The Bunbury Cemetery Board in Western Australia has ordered families to remove non-compliant tributes and markers from graves within 28 days, citing safety concerns. This directive has left local families, like Denise Thornborough whose handmade items at her daughter Linda’s grave must be removed, heartbroken and confused about the timing of the order. The board argues it is bound by state laws and regulations aimed at maintaining a safe and tidy cemetery, but families are pushing back with an online petition that has gathered nearly 800 signatures to change these rules.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-17,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it +0.45, but none of the 5 quote(s) it offered could be found in the article text, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph
rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score withheld for article 14747: no verified evidence · logged 2026-09-17
In short:
The Bunbury Cemetery Board has stunned local families by ordering "non-compliant" gravesite tributes and markers to be removed within 28 days.
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Board → stun → days
Denise Thornborough says she will be devastated if she is unable to return the homemade tributes, which had been in place for more than a decade, to her daughter's grave.
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which → say → grave
The board says it is bound by state laws and regulations, which local families are now pushing to change.
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families → say → which
Families have been left heartbroken by a bureaucratic order to remove headstones, tributes and other keepsakes from loved ones' graves in a West Australian cemetery.
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Families → leave → cemetery
The Bunbury Cemetery Board sent out letters last month, alerting custodians to a grave site audit.
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Board → send → audit
The letter cited a need to keep memorial gardens and the cemetery "safe, tidy and fair for everyone", giving those contacted a 28-day notice to remove tributes "not compliant" with regulations.
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letter → cite → regulations
The move has sparked backlash from locals, with a family's online petition to get the by-laws changed garnering almost 800 signatures.
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laws → spark → signatures
Mother 'broken' by move
When Denise Thornborough's daughter, Linda McDonald, died 13 years ago, she and her family could not afford a headstone.
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she → break → headstone
On top of funeral fees, a headstone can cost families up to $5,000, with even simpler plaques and grave markers advertised at hundreds of dollars.
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plaques → cost → dollars
Instead, the family began leaving handmade items, crosses and an angel statue, to mark Linda's final resting place and to pay tribute to her and her legacy.
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family → begin → legacy
Heartbroken family members spent Tuesday night clearing the gravesite, ahead of the cemetery board deadline.
"I didn't even get close to it; I only glanced over, and it feels like it's just broken," Ms Thornborough said.
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Thornborough → spend → it
"I just walked past and you can see there's nothing there — it's just empty."
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it → walk → ?
Linda's sister, Jaimie Jones, said the cost should not dictate how a family remembers their loved ones.
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family → say → ones
It's not what grief is about," she said.
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she → say → what
Board bound by by-laws
Bunbury Cemetery Board chief executive Kristy Constantine said it was a state government authority, bound by laws and safety requirements.
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it → bind → laws
"We are responsible for every member of staff and every member of the public that comes to site," she said.
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she → come → site
"If the headstones are unauthorised and they have items that can be broken or may cause detriment to the cemetery, to the cemetery workers and any members of the public … they have to be removed."
By-laws have been in place for more than 30 years.
Ms Constantine said the lawn cemetery, where Linda's grave was located, posed particular challenges when it came to upkeep.
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it → have → upkeep
She said there was no ability to grant individual exemptions.
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She → say → exemptions
"We have to use machinery, and we need to make sure that everybody is safe," she said.
"
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she → have → machinery
We're not able to show any preferential treatment to anyone on site."
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We → show → site
Families confused by timing
Ms Jones said she did not understand why her sister's resting place had to be disturbed after 13 years.
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place → confuse → years
"That's probably one of the biggest things that has confused and frustrated us because it's been so long," she said.
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she → confuse → us
"There was nothing, no breakables or anything, that could hurt anyone."
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that → be → anyone
Peter Trenerry's son Shane died seven years ago.
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son → die → ?
Mr Trenerry said the angel statue placed at his son's grave was an important part of how he and his wife grieved.
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he → say → grave
"We didn't have much money at the time … so we wanted to do as good as we can," he said.
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he → have → time
"So we got the angel.
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we → get → angel
It breaks your heart to see that after a few years, someone's come along and said: 'You've got to get rid of your son's grave.'"
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You → break → grave
Ms Constantine said the board understood the stress placed on loved ones.
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board → say → ones
"It's not something that we do lightheartedly," she said.
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she → do → that
"But we need to make sure that everyone is compliant."
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everyone → need → ?
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