Muldoon's grave in way of Auckland's eastern highway

By BERNARD ORSMAN

The graves of former Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon and 350 other people are in the pathway of one of the options for the eastern highway.

Sir Robert is buried at Purewa Cemetery in his old electorate of Tamaki where one of the proposed routes for the highway runs.

The $3 billion eastern highway is one of the biggest public projects since Sir Robert embarked on the "Think Big" projects in the 1970s and is being championed by one of his National proteges, MP-turned Auckland City Mayor John Banks.

Schools, shopping centres, golf clubs, parks and thousands of homes are also in the pathway among options for the 27km highway, from the city through the eastern suburbs to Manukau.

Sir Robert was Prime Minister from 1975 until 1984, when the Lange Labour Government swept to power. He died in 1992 and was farewelled at the Auckland Town Hall before a family burial at Purewa Cemetery.

Purewa Cemetery general manager Clifton Thomson yesterday said the trust board was fighting the proposed route - one of several to bypass the environmentally sensitive Purewa Creek area containing mangroves with a coastal protection order prohibiting their removal.

Other options include building a bridge over the railway lines to avoid the cemetery and the mangroves.

Mr Thomson said the cemetery route would take about 0.8 hectares of the 115-year-old 22ha cemetery. He had no idea where the remains could be relocated.

"If Transit New Zealand take that bit of land which is currently what we are using now, the cemetery will pretty much have to close because we will have no available burial land left," Mr Thomson said.

He said the proposal had forced the cemetery to change its website and brochures to no longer say it offered "peace and tranquillity" and let people know new plots could be affected by the highway.

Families and friends of more than 200 people had contacted the cemetery concerned about the graves of their loved ones being dug up.

Mr Banks said: "I have to say it would be an option of last resort to be resting his long-deserved peace ... it would be a very difficult task indeed to go to Lady Muldoon and the family and put the proposition that we need to remove the last resting place of that great Prime Minister."

Mr Banks said he had not been advised by consultants Opus about the preferred option for the highway, which would be given to the Auckland City and Manukau councils and Transit on March 9 and made public the same day. An economic impact report by forecaster Berl would also be released that day.