Northland family distressed as grave's edge collapses

The grave of Bill Tuckey, Northland's oldest man when he died late last year, is shored up after collapsing into a trench dug for a new monument. Photo / Supplied

The family of a recently buried Rawene identity is ''devastated'' his grave has been disturbed by construction of a monument to Chinese goldminers whose bodies were lost at sea.

Bruce Tuckey of Kaeo said he was visiting his father's grave at Rawene Cemetery on Monday when he was shocked to discover it had partly collapsed into a trench dug for the new monument's foundations.

''I got the shock of my life. They'd desecrated his grave. You can imagine what he's saying down there,'' the Kaeo resident said.

When his father, Bill, died late last year at the age of 105, he was believed to be Northland's oldest man. He was buried with his wife, Nora, who died more than 20 years earlier, and the ashes of their son Graham.

However, contractors had dug a trench hard up against the downhill side of the grave, which had started collapsing in recent rain. It was then shored up with planks.

''They took the bank right out and it's all started to topple into the trench,'' Tuckey said.

His parents' gravestone had shifted, as had another nearby. He alerted the Far North District Council, which stopped work at the site.

Tuckey's wife, Lola, said it was the last thing she expected to happen to an old Rawene identity who had only been buried a few months.

''We're devastated. We've been through a bad time, watching him get sicker and sicker, trying to do our best for him, and now this happens.

"We're upset, annoyed and disappointed. We'd like him and the other people buried there to be shown the respect they thought they would get when they were buried in a cemetery.''

The monument is for goldminers whose remains were lost at sea when the SS Ventnor sank off Hokianga Harbour in 1902.

The bodies were on their way to China for burial in the miners' home villages, in accordance with Chinese custom. Some of the remains washed up and were reportedly buried in Rawene cemetery.

Thirteen crew and the remains of 499 miners were on the Ventnor.

The monument was being funded by the New Zealand Chinese Association and would consist of a series of concrete steps and steel panels evoking a ship, a dragon's spine or whale bones.

Bruce Tuckey said he had read newspaper reports about the monument but didn't know it was going to be so close to his father's grave.

Bill Tuckey just before his 104th birthday. Photo / File

He believed it should have been built on the other side of the cemetery fence where there was plenty of room.

Council infrastructure and asset manager Andy Finch confirmed excavation work by a private contractor had compromised one grave and disturbed another at Rawene cemetery.

The contractor had been ordered to stop work and prevent further subsidence by shoring up the excavation site as soon as council staff were informed.

''I want to apologise to family members who are understandably distressed at seeing the graves of their relatives disturbed.

"The council shares their concerns and will ensure there is no further disturbance,'' Finch said.

The council and the Kaikohe-Hokianga Community Board had been involved in the Ventnor memorial project but council staff had no idea construction work had begun, so had no chance to discuss the exact placement of the memorial or ensure disruption to the cemetery was minimised.

Finch said staff were in contact with a representative of the memorial project as well as families of those whose graves have been affected.

Work would resume only when all parties were in agreement.

The Northland District Health Board was notified about the disturbance to a fresh grave and carried out a public health assessment.