6 Sep 2011

Gravestone internet record created

8:25 am on 6 September 2011

Thousands of gravestones from a Dunedin cemetery can now be viewed from anywhere in the world.

A project to put the images on the internet is the largest of its kind yet attempted in New Zealand.

Volunteers have taken more than 4000 photographs of graves and their inscriptions, and these have been loaded on the Dunedin city council's website.

The chair of the Historic Cemeteries Conservation Trust, Stewart Harvey, says others have taken photos of headstones, but not before on this scale or level of quality.

Mr Harvey says the project has even greater significance with the destruction of many of Christchurch's cemeteries by earthquakes.

The group is half way through its task and hopes to complete the project in a few years.