The damage to graves and headstones at a central Tauranga cemetery has shocked a local resident.

A woman visiting her mother's grave at the Tauranga Anglican Cemetery in Seventeenth Avenue was appalled to see that more than a dozen grave sites appeared to be smashed and headstones overturned.

'I've come down to put some flowers on my mum's grave,” says Cathy. 'We lost her during the first Covid lockdown in 2020.

'While I was placing the flowers I saw some gravestones nearby were down. I looked around and saw that a whole lot more have been damaged.”

As she walked around to see the extent of the damage she found even more.

‘A lot of the headstones have been smashed down. If they're a long grave, the concrete has been smashed in also.”

Tauranga Anglican Cemetery is located at the junction of Seventeenth Ave and Grace Rd in Tauranga South.

The burial records start from the first burial on May 8 1881 of Augusta Elizabeth Corlett, wife of BS Corlett in Row 2, Section 1.

As a regular visitor to the cemetery, Cathy thinks that a person would have caused the damage using a sledgehammer.

'It's absolutely disgusting. They must have used a sledgehammer. I can't believe someone could do this. Who or what sick person would do that?”

She phoned Police who told her to lodge the incident with Tauranga City Council.

'I'm trying to get hold of someone at Council, can't get through yet.”

Tauranga City Council which manages a number of cemeteries around the city including the Tauranga Anglican Cemetery do not have CCTV coverage in the area around the 17^th Ave site.

'It's unreal that someone did this. I believe karma will come back," says Cathy.