Welcome back to another year of the Clare Valley Podcast 2024
Coming up in this episode:
With several deferrals finally behind us, the budget review has been passed. We recap on the details surrounding rising operating deficits and capital budget adjustments that affect us all.
The Clare and Gilbert Valley community continues to grapple with the housing rental crunch. Councillor Bartholomeaus has received anecdotal information that 50 per cent of the region's tourism accomodation now caters for long term rentals. The implication of this local issue has never been more significant, particularly as we stare down the potential impact on beloved events like the Clare Gourmet Week.
Plus, Karen Pfitzner, Council Cemetery Administrator, joins us to provide a sensitive yet enlightening look into the evolving practices of cemetery management. From the shift towards cremation to the intricacies of interment rights, we're covering the solemn realities of honoring our departed loved ones.
Remember, our podcast is your shortcut to remaining in the loop without wading through council minutes or attending meetings in person. We value your input, so don't hesitate to share your thoughts and stay connected by following, rating, or reviewing the Clare Valley Podcast. Keep an ear out for our next episode, where we continue to bring the heartbeat of local news straight to you.
Welcome back to another year of the Clare Valley Podcast 2024
Coming up in this episode:
With several deferrals finally behind us, the budget review has been passed. We recap on the details surrounding rising operating deficits and capital budget adjustments that affect us all.
The Clare and Gilbert Valley community continues to grapple with the housing rental crunch. Councillor Bartholomeaus has received anecdotal information that 50 per cent of the region's tourism accomodation now caters for long term rentals. The implication of this local issue has never been more significant, particularly as we stare down the potential impact on beloved events like the Clare Gourmet Week.
Plus, Karen Pfitzner, Council Cemetery Administrator, joins us to provide a sensitive yet enlightening look into the evolving practices of cemetery management. From the shift towards cremation to the intricacies of interment rights, we're covering the solemn realities of honoring our departed loved ones.
Remember, our podcast is your shortcut to remaining in the loop without wading through council minutes or attending meetings in person. We value your input, so don't hesitate to share your thoughts and stay connected by following, rating, or reviewing the Clare Valley Podcast. Keep an ear out for our next episode, where we continue to bring the heartbeat of local news straight to you.
This podcast is brought to you by the Clare and Gilbert Valleys Council. Welcome to 2024 and another round of Clare Valley podcast episodes to keep you informed on council news and issues in the Clare and Gilbert Valleys region. I'm your host, Annabelle Homer, and I'm glad to be back behind the mic again this year. C oming up today, of course, we'll get our regular update on what mumblings and rumblings occurred in the latest council meeting housing shortages and tourism accommodation woes for one, and the budget review has finally been passed after four attempts. Also, how often do you visit your local cemetery?
Karen Pfitzner:80% in the city are cremated and 70 in the country, so people are probably looking more for more ashes options.
Annabelle Homer:I guess, with all this talk about cemeteries and death, I presume that you would have thought about it for yourself, considering you're surrounded by it all the time. Have you got a plan, karen? I do have a plot. Well, you've got a plot already.
Karen Pfitzner:I do.
Annabelle Homer:Today we're going behind the scenes of the local Clare cemetery. What's the process when you want to cremate or bury a loved one? We'll get all the details from council cemetery administrator, Karen Fitzner, but first let's get the latest from council headquarters with CEO Dr Helen McDonald. Let's recap on the draft budget review process. So far, the council has deferred a decision four times. I understand?
Helen Macdonald:Yes, that's correct, that's a lot of delays, yes, most unusual. It's. In my career within local government, I've never experienced this before.
Annabelle Homer:And this is because the councillors wanted further details. There were alterations in reports, so now that this has been delayed four times, has there been some type of conclusion and was it passed in the end?
Helen Macdonald:Yes, last night council did adopt the budget review, so that is very positive and we can move forward and we've got another budget review coming up very shortly, because in the four months it's taken them to adopt this budget review, we are due for our next one and we have to have all of our budget reviews completed by May.
Annabelle Homer:Let's just recap all the current status of this budget review, because there's two elements to it. There's the operating budget and the capital budget. What is the current status of those two?
Helen Macdonald:With respect to the operating budget, there was an increase in the deficit by 165,584 dollars and that was made up of a decision that council made to grant the Manura Centenary Park 80,000 dollars for their wellness centre that they're building. Council also made a decision to give the Gourmet weekend funds for that event. It's a part of council's hallmark funding. That's 20,000 dollars. There's 100,000 of the 165,500. And then we had an increase in our insurance costs, which not a decision of council, that's just a change in business expenses. That wasn't necessarily foreseen. There was a little bit of a change on the income side where, now that we're working under the new rental agreement for discovery, there's a slight reduction in rent the previous year. That was offset by the 80,000 dollars increase in our investment income. So there's a change there. It's a completely different type of lease agreement. It's not easy to compare the income from the previous year with the current agreement.
Annabelle Homer:Now the capital budget. What is the current status of that?
Helen Macdonald:There were changes. Part of it was made up of carryovers from the previous year's budget. That can be invoices that weren't received, so if we get invoices after the close of the books then they have to be shown. Sometimes there's work that hasn't been completed, so it's carried over and finished and often that is hard to gauge. There was a change in carry forwards to the total of 416,000 dollars and we also had to add in some carryovers from prior years for funding that we or work we do as part of funding we get under the local roads and community infrastructure funding project, which is state and federal government funding.
Annabelle Homer:What part of this whole process did council battle with?
Helen Macdonald:There was an error that was generated by administration. We put up for a budget review some costing for some roadworks that we ended up taking out because the information we provided was incorrect. So that was, let's say, a distraction from the first meeting, which was then corrected. The area that's taken the most amount of time really has been the change in costings for the resheets and renewal program, and a lot of that is just changing in the cost of materials. You know, changing volumes, the width of the road. The information that we have in out the program we use was incorrect. We had to get more material because the road was actually wider than it had been recorded. Council wanted an explanation, for all of these must be 30 or 40 roads. Also increases in fuel prices, all range of manner. That process took quite some time to understand what council actually wanted.
Karen Pfitzner:With all the detail provided.
Helen Macdonald:There was an increase of 21,000. That was it, and overall the changes to the capital budget are 433,000. Most of that really comes from the carryovers from the previous year.
Annabelle Homer:Escoza recently reviewed the finances of the Claring Gilbert Valley's Council and a report is due out in the next few months. This will provide the public with an independent view where Council is sitting financially. Moving on to gifting of the Orban Library to the Orban Community Development Committee, in May Council supported the gifting of the Orban Library building to the ACDC, subject to broader consultation. Now this was carried out and Council has revoked the community land status. In December, after receiving approval from the Minister Sounded like you and the Mayor just had to sign the dotted line. I understand, and did this go ahead?
Helen Macdonald:No, it didn't. At the 11th hour we got a request from the Orban Community Development Committee and they asked that Council didn't proceed with the gifting at this point in time because they were not 100% certain of being able to get together the funding which is required to do some alterations to the building which they need to do to be able to use it. They originally thought that Council would give them all the money from the sale of the RSL building which in Orban which has been sold. Certainly Council is committed to that money being spent in the Orban Community. However, Council wasn't prepared to make a decision to say that they could have all of that money. Council wants to go through a process of allowing the entire Orban Community the ability to put in requests some of that funding or if not, all of that funding. So the decision Council made was to delay any decision about gifting the building for a six month period.
Annabelle Homer:An update on the revocation of community land status of Lott 102, phoenix Avenue, claire, into Freehold land. Minister Jeff Brock has approved the application to revoke that status and Council now has the go ahead to put that land up for sale. And that's in the hope it will be sold to a developer to build more houses to alleviate the critical housing shortage in the valley. Australia Day celebrations. A big congratulations to the Claire and Gilbert Valleys Australia Day award winners for 2024. Citizen of the Year went to Tracy Heritage, riley McEnany was awarded the Young Citizen of the Year, the Claire Rodeo was awarded. The Community Event of the Year. Active Citizenship Award went to Ryan Trigilgus and the inaugural Volunteer of the Year went to Glenda Swavley. Congratulations to all. Road purchase request for rural unmade road reserves. Councils received multiple requests from ratepayers seeking to purchase the rural unmade road reserves that are adjacent to their properties. Currently they're renting the road reserves on an annual basis. Now they want to buy the roads outright. What is the process here and is this a common practice?
Helen Macdonald:Well, it's a practice that has been undergone at this Council for many years.
Helen Macdonald:Part of South Australia's early settlement, when farms were very small, there were numerous roads that were anticipated to be needed as the population grew and there was increased settlement and so in the planning processes of the state there's just numerous roads all over the place, as I'm sure You're aware. Others are aware. Farming has changed and there are fewer farms but just bigger farms, and so some of those road reserves are not anticipated to be needed for the future functioning of the community, to many of them being leased for many, many years, and we have always had the opportunity that people can put in a request to purchase that land and then we go through a process of which includes community consultation, to see whether or not there's interest or need for that to remain as a road reserve and then it can be sold Again because it's a change of title. It's a very long process because it requires ministerial approval and title changes, surveying. In terms of time, it just takes quite a lot of time to go through all the steps.
Helen Macdonald:Not every single road that was put up was actually agreed to be sold. Council actually, first time ever, removed some of the roads, so they said no, straight up, we're not selling that.
Annabelle Homer:What was the reasons behind that?
Helen Macdonald:One was about the wine and witness trail. They're concerned that the land could be sold and the permission that people have to use the area might be withdrawn. They have automatic right at Plobber Road. You can't exclude anybody from it, even if it's leased or somebody has a permit to use it. The other one was, first of all, it was about fire access, but the other one was people actually do use it.
Annabelle Homer:Now let's take a look at the Discovery Caravan Park update. Many members of the public used the brand new water park over the summer holidays. Has Council received any feedback?
Helen Macdonald:In regards to the water park, I understand that there has been some complaints about the water park, not in terms of what it is, but in terms of people having to pay to use it at particular times, particularly when Discovery had communicated on numerous occasions to Council. They had also done it in the media, both locally and in the advertiser, and also as part of a survey, they undertook that access to the water park would be free and then, when people turned up and on particular days, they had to pay. So I'm not sure what the number of people are that were upset by this, but certainly were people that were upset to the point of calling councillors. And I've had some discussions with Discovery and I think part of the issue is the fact that Discovery have had numerous changes in their middle management and decisions were made which were in a context of being completely unaware of what their CEO had promised to the community, although it's not in their lease. They're perfectly at liberty to charge for entry because there isn't anything in the lease that says you will give the community free access.
Helen Macdonald:That was a discussion that was heard with the councillors in the development of the lease. So if that's what Discovery want to do, then they can do it. Council's not in charge of how they charge for the use of their facilities. That's their responsibility, although, as I have said before, it's a little disingenuous to whack a charge on when you've communicated through the media etc. That it would be free access and that they provide free access to their water parks at the Brossa Valley and at Mota. So I'm not sure why this needs to be treated differently.
Annabelle Homer:During January, the public could use the water park without being charged from Monday to Thursday, from 12 to 4. We have recently received confirmation that this system will be ongoing, but also the water park will be open to the public for free on Sundays as well, from 10 till 6. A motion without notice was brought up by Councillor Bartholomeaus about the shortage of housing in the Clare Valley that continues to worsen. He's received anecdotal information stating that approximately 50% of the Clare Valley's tourism accommodation has been turned into long term or short term rental accommodation as a result of the booming worker population from the Wind Farm Development in Goida and the Battery Development in Blythe. We have reported in the past about the lack of rental accommodation in the valley, with many businesses struggling to find places for their employees to live. Now this shortage is having an adverse effect on tourism. Council has requested a report to be written by Regional Development Australia to confirm this anecdotal information.
Helen Macdonald:I think we've known for a long time it's just got worse that there's a shortage of housing for rental. So we've known that the probably more recent thing that's happened is the loss of tourism accommodation. And I know that's a fact and I know it's concerning to the tourism industry because they're losing visitation. So people are coming and they want to stay next to night. They can't because they can't find anywhere to stay. It's deeply concerning to, for example, the Gourmet event, because that's when you want people to stay and if there's not accommodation then how successful would that event be?
Helen Macdonald:And we're certainly to the point where several months ago, when the SA Tourism Commission Board was here, we spent quite a lot of time talking to them about the shortage of tourism accommodation and the impact that a project like a Wind Farm Development and the Wind Farm Development is going to be ongoing for five to seven years, I think the impact that has on businesses here and, I suppose, the viability of the local economy. The people that are working for it's really it's the subcontractors to the Wind Farm. They don't come here with their families, they come here for weekday works generally probably go home on the weekends. They are spending money in the economy, mostly in the hotels and food etc. But in terms of viability for schools and other services not getting that additional benefit.
Annabelle Homer:Is there a lot of tourist accommodation in the pipeline?
Helen Macdonald:I can't say so much about building but in terms of, from a planning point of view, the applications that we have coming through, there seems to be a number of businesses that are looking to add accommodation onto their existing businesses and there are some businesses that are expanding their accommodation that they currently have. There's things in the pipeline. However, if it requires you know tradies and builders, then you know they've got to join the queue because we know we've got a shortage of those particular skills and unless we import those people don't know where we find houses for them to live. But anyway, the compounding problem.
Annabelle Homer:One thing I don't understand is that Wind Farm development and the battery development I presume would have been in the pipeline for many years before it started to be built. So couldn't we foresee that there was going to be a need for housing before it started?
Helen Macdonald:Well, I think this is the problem when major project approval is done by the minister without consultation locally in terms of understanding the impacts when you've got a major project development. So if you're building, for example, a mine, you need to do a whole lot of economic and social impacts assessments. So you've got to understand what the impact is that you're going to have on that community or those communities. I mean it depends on you know what's in your permits, but good companies, I mean do this regardless and work out how you're going to address that and try and minimise the negative consequences or impacts on those communities. Actually, we're speaking with a neon representative a number of months ago and I mean he was a bit gobsmacked that we're complaining about all these people coming in. He's thinking that all the empty rentals would have been taken up. It's kind of like, well, what empty rentals? And I don't think they even had intended to build any camp.
Helen Macdonald:So you know, temporary accommodation that was something that came after the fact, and nor did the government require them to basically be really clear about all the people they would be bringing in as part of their construction process. How would accommodation be provided? And even looking at what's the surplus accommodation that currently exists in neighbouring towns. Was there actually enough? All the action that has been undertaken has been since the permits to construct have been granted, with the impact of the subcontractors taking away tourist accommodation, sending prices through the roof, having families turfed out of houses at the end of their lease agreements because wind farms will lease the house at a substantially higher price. It's a consequence of that that primarily local government has got involved trying to work out how to address the issue, lodging complaints with the ministers, and I mean I know when we were talking with the tourism board and some of their senior executive of the SA Tourism Commission, they were completely unaware that the wind farm was having such a devastating impact on the tourism accommodation in the Clare Valley.
Annabelle Homer:Discussions between Council, the RDA and the South Australian Office for Regional Housing will continue to try and find solutions to this ongoing housing issue. Ceo, Dr Helen MacDonald, thank you very much again for your time this month and I look forward to catching you again next month.
Helen Macdonald:Absolutely
Annabelle Homer:Are you familiar with what to do when someone dies. When it comes to the burial or cremation, who do you approach? Funeral director yes, monumental mason yes.
Annabelle Homer:But did you know? Your local council plays a major role at the cemetery? Karen Fitzner is the cemetery administrator for all 16 cemeteries in the Clare and Gilbert Valleys Council area. She organizes all the interment or lease arrangements for burial and cremation plots and makes sure the cemeteries are well maintained. I caught up with Karen at the Clare cemetery, a cemetery that has existed since 1871. Prior to that, clare was served by three church cemeteries. There are now roughly 2,908 burials in the Clare cemetery, the biggest cemetery in the council area. I asked her firstly, what does her role as cemetery administrator consist of?
Karen Pfitzner:So basically, the funeral directors are the first people that contact me if they want a burial or for placement of ashes, so they need to adhere that the family has an interment right. So basically, you cannot bury anyone without an interment right.
Annabelle Homer:Which is like a lease. Which is like a lease, they used to call it a lease.
Karen Pfitzner:There is some technical difference to it, so they call it an interment right. You need to have a current interment right to be able to bury anybody, to be able to do work on a plot so for instance, your memorial or anything like that. I'm the first contact, so I organise that. Sometimes the families come to me first and they already have an interment right when the burial is to take place.
Annabelle Homer:What are your options when it comes to an interment right?
Karen Pfitzner:So many years ago it was always 99 years. Then I think when council amalgamated, at that time I think a lot of councils actually went back to 50 years. But we've actually changed ours now because some families actually want to know that their families are going to be okay in the future. So now we offer 99 and perpetuity. Some people aren't worried about the future, but I was getting a lot of questions about forever. People want to know that their loved ones are going to be there forever.
Annabelle Homer:Here in the regional area of Clare, you're not at the stage where you're burying people on top of people.
Karen Pfitzner:That's right. We're lucky that we've got enough land in all our cemeteries that it'll be at least a couple hundred years I think it's about my lifetime that they will start reclaiming and that depends on the council whether a lot of councils will buy more land, if that's possible, to extend their cemetery. But it's all at the time, at that time of what's going to happen. I can't foresee that.
Annabelle Homer:And I notice that you're expanding now. I understand there's the old part across the road and we're in the new part.
Karen Pfitzner:Because, just like with our statistics that we get from our conference, 80% in the city are cremated and 70% in the country. So people are probably looking more for more ashes options. So we are actually. We've got on order a new monument that's going in the Clare cemetery. So it's a 10 by 10 by 10 by 10. So 40 ashes, lots of ashes, can go in there. You can have two together. So if you want a plaque for a joint one, you can do that, and it's going to have a nice garden in the middle. We are trying to beautify it a little bit. Yes, we are in a bit of an arid. You know water's expensive. I mean I would love to put in a lawn one, but that's just a lot of maintenance. But we are trying to, you know, upkeep the cemetery as good as we can. You know money is always tight with budgets and that We've got also a cremation wall. We do. It's a niche wall, yes, so there are a few spots left, are?
Annabelle Homer:Are you planning on expanding the niche wall as well?
Karen Pfitzner:Not at this stage. There are still enough spots in there. Once it gets close, we will then look at building another one or extending that one, because that's in a shape of a cross.
Annabelle Homer:Ah right, so the most popular option at the moment is more, the cremonuments. It's a really tricky one to get your tongue around. You said that 70% of people are cremated in the country, opposed to 80% in the cities, but I did notice in the last financial year figures that the grave digging costs have gone up quite significantly.
Karen Pfitzner:Yes, it is an expensive exercise, so unfortunately that happens at the time. People can do a pre-need for their internment right. Sometimes they will do a pre-need headstone. They will go and see a monumental mason and get that organised, but unfortunately digging is at the time.
Annabelle Homer:So a lot of people did pass away in the last financial year?
Karen Pfitzner:Yes, we did have more. Last year we had a fortnight where I had five burials and the numbers were increasing, but just in the last two months we've only got the one which is happening on Wednesday. It's something that's very unpredictable.
Annabelle Homer:How much does it actually cost to bury, or to bury somebody's ashes or bury a body here at the cemetery?
Karen Pfitzner:So unfortunately dying is not a cheap thing. Your interment right for a cremonument is 900 for 99 years, 1800 for perpetuity. So we'll just do the cremonument at this stage and then you can go to a monumental mason to do the plaque, and usually council themselves don't handle ashes themselves. So we recommend that you use your monumental mason to place the ashes and all we ask is for a notification of placement of ashes, because it is an actual burial, so that we can record that for future generations down the track.
Annabelle Homer:All right, we're walking through the older part of the cemetery across the road. Why is it that we don't have these magnificent headstones anymore, like the big structural runs with the cross?
Karen Pfitzner:It is the cost. Down in Adelaide, families will have mausoleums and when I looked at that at one of the conferences they were up to a million dollars for just that. You know they talk about theirthe children get upset when the parents put all their money into their burial because they're losing their inheritance. Some groups likethey think death is like very prestigious and that's what they want. As I said, death is still an individual thing and it's up to the individual to what they want.
Annabelle Homer:So you're not going to have a million dollar headstone on yours?
Karen Pfitzner:No, definitely not, I'm going to have the million dollars first.
Annabelle Homer:Looking at cemeteries generally across the board in the regions, where does Clare sit in regards to the scale?
Karen Pfitzner:Oh, Clare is our largest cemetery, for sure. Auburn is getting up there because they have a lot of old burials, so there are a lot of unmarked graves in Auburn. Mintaro is another one that has a lot of unmarked graves. Auburn is another large cemetery, Saddleworth, and then the others are just you know, they slowly decrease in size, like there's Watervale, there's Tarlee, Stockport, so we have 16 all up, which they're all listed on our website.
Annabelle Homer:And when it comes to unmarked graves, you were telling me that in West Terrace, at the cemetery there. West Terrace has how many?
Karen Pfitzner:There's 50,000 unmarked graves in the West Terrace Cemetery in Adelaide. So there's 68 acres of graves but 50,000 unknown graves.
Annabelle Homer:Wow, and that is during the 1800s. I presume most of them would have been, and that would be the same here.
Karen Pfitzner:Because they don't have a headstone. You can get ground penetrating radar. You can get your cemeteries done for that. We've had Auburn and Mintaro done. We do have maps of that, but you don't know who's in there. It's all to do with the soil being disturbed is how they can decipher whether there's a burial there or not.
Annabelle Homer:You mentioned earlier that you've got the oldest part of the cemetery and you've got the new part of the cemetery. But if you've got family in the old part and you wish to be buried or your ashes to be with your family, you can still do so.
Karen Pfitzner:Well, yes, depending on the circumstances and on what depth they were buried at, because usually a double depth, the first one is seven feet, where the first one is buried, and then the next one is six feet. So as long as the first person was buried at the deeper depth, then there's not an issue. So, and yes, you can always put an ashes in, as long as your internment right is current. And with internment rights it does get tricky because it could be say, my dad took out his internment right, I'll use my dad as an excuse. Then you cannot have an internment right in an estate. An internment right has to be in an actual person. So then we have to do a transfer of internment right, which either needs to be the executor of the will or it's the oldest living descendant. It does get very tricky.
Annabelle Homer:I guess, with all this talk about cemeteries and death, I presume that you would have thought about it for yourself, considering you're surrounded by it all the time. Have you got a plan, karen? I do have a plot. Well, you've got a plot already.
Karen Pfitzner:I do. Marked it out in the best spot. Mine's in Riverton, where my ex-husband is so I'll be moving that to a different cemetery. Oh, okay, yeah, you can move. If you've got an interment right in one, we can transfer it to another cemetery in our area, in our council.
Annabelle Homer:Oh. So what happens if you say I'm from Queensland a lot of my ancestors are buried up in Rockhampton, for example but if I say wanted to move my mum or my dad down to a different council area, can that be done?
Karen Pfitzner:Very expensively, because that's an excumation if you wanted to move the body. So if it's ashes though. Yes, I think you can, and that would depend on the cemetery authority, so you'd have to go through them and that. But yes, we actually do get people that come contact us that have had burials in town and they just want to move the headstone to either a family plot in one of the cemeteries or to a new plot. Do you hear of people moving bodies? No, oh, it's going to say that would be tricky.
Karen Pfitzner:It's going to be a lot of excumination and you have to get the Attorney General approval to do that. We do have a couple of memorial plots that aren't as expensive. So we have one in Minterre and there's one being built in Riney. So if people want to move their headstones from a town cemetery, you know where their lease, their internment right, has expired, they can do that, do you?
Annabelle Homer:Do you have any issues when it comes to people vandalising headstones in the valley.
Karen Pfitzner:We did have an incident of five, six years ago. I didn't have anything to do with it. At that stage I wasn't doing cemeteries. It happened in Auburn where a lot of vandalism was done, sadly, and but Cathy, who was the administrator at that time she did a lot of work found families. Luckily they got some money from Jeff Brock to help the families repair the graves there.
Annabelle Homer:Well, Karen, I just wanted to say thank you so much for sharing everything there is to know about cemeteries, there's always something to learn. I've found it fascinating and, as I said, there's lots of history steep in a cemetery. There certainly is. I'm looking forward to going around and seeing who is laid to rest here in this cemetery. I've noticed that there's probably some historic winemakers here. Oh, definitely there would be.
Karen Pfitzner:Most of the information is on our website. You know, I do go around and take photos of all the headstones. I'm halfway through. I'm doing a new program as well for cemeteries, that I'm uploading photos and information that you can. Actually, when you go to it, you can find somebody and it'll actually show you on the map where it is.
Annabelle Homer:So on our website On the map as in on the cemetery map.
Karen Pfitzner:Yes, and it'll show you exactly where the headstone is. We've had drone imagery taken of our cemeteries. This was 12 months and I've probably got half the cemeteries done. But in saying that I've got all the big ones done, it's just a lot of the little ones I've got to do now.
Annabelle Homer:Speaking of technology, after going to your conference recently, the cemetery conference, which, to be honest, I'm quite fascinated that there was cemetery conference in the first place Was there a lot of talk about what some of those big cemeteries in the cities were doing in relation to technology?
Karen Pfitzner:Oh well, they probably are right up with it. Like one is a small thing which I will look at trying to implement, probably in the next budget, is QR codes, so that put a QR code in front of the gate and people who can go to that cemetery and then use their smartphone and it'll take you to that website and you can search the people in there and locate them exactly where they are Karen Fitzner, cemetery Administrator with the Clearing Gilbert Valleys Council.
Annabelle Homer:And there you have it. There are QR codes for everything these days. Thank you, Karen, for your time. That's it for another episode of the Clare Valley podcast, first one for 2024. For more details on what was discussed at January's council meeting, head to the council's website where you can check out the minutes. All the details are also in my show notes. If you have been enjoying the Clare Valley podcast, please share it, follow it, rate it or write a review. I would love the feedback. This podcast is a great way to keep up to date with local council news, especially if you don't have the time to attend meetings or read the minutes. Catch you next time for another episode of the Clare Valley podcast.