The cemetery’s history of drainage problems has been exacerbated by near-record rainfalls.

Rising water levels yesterday had potentially affected an estimated two-thirds of the 16-hectare necropolis, where 90,000 people have been buried since 1881. A state investigation has been launched into whether construction of the adjacent inner-city bypass is compounding the problem.

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‘‘There are some sections where we have always had a water problem but they are a bit worse now,’’ Sandgate Cemetery Trust chairman Peter Owens said yesterday.

‘‘There are also a couple of other areas where we are noticing a problem where there wasn’t in the past.’’

The Newcastle Herald observed hundreds of graves in older parts of the cemetery surrounded by or covered in water yesterday.

Thousands of others could have water just beneath the surface.

The situation makes it impossible to open a grave without it filling with water or the risk of damaging surrounding monuments.

A Roads and Maritime Services spokeswoman said five water monitoring stations had been installed on the cemetery’s western boundary to investigate if there was a link between the inner-city bypass and water levels in the cemetery.

‘‘It will take several months of monitoring to collect sufficient data about the water table within the cemetery.’’

Mr Owens said the monitoring results would hopefully provide a better understanding of the problem.

‘‘We are not saying the roadworks are causing a water problem because we already have one of those, but they might be compounding it,’’ he said.

‘‘Until we get some data over a period of time we are all flying in the dark.’’

Water drainage has become an increasingly difficult problem to manage since the 1989 earthquake damaged several drainage pipes that run beneath graves.

‘‘There were plans made to get some drains running along the road, but the cost of that post-earthquake was about five-times what we had in the bank,’’ Mr Owens said.

He said one burial was presently held up as a result of the inundation.

‘‘I think there is an understanding in the community that it’s not just our [the cemetery trust’s] fault,’’ he said.

‘‘The problem isn’t so much the water in the hole, as much as we can’t dig the hole.’’

Those faced with the prospect of not being able to use an existing plot can choose between delaying the burial until the water drops, cremation or acquiring another plot in the cemetery’s lawn section.

The lawn cemetery was not affected by the water.