Enfield Memorial Park calls on families to renew grave licences

A northern suburbs cemetery is on a sensitive mission to try to reconnect with families of expired graves before it’s too late.

The relatives of hundreds of deceased people buried and cremated at Enfield Memorial Park cemetery will be asked to pay up or risk losing the gravesite.

The major cemetery in Adelaide’s north has served the community for more than 70 years and now Adelaide Cemeteries is embarking on a planned sensitive program to reconnect families with expired sites.

It comes as more than 75 per cent of sites in the inner Catholic and General sections now have expired interment rights with some lapsing 25 years ago.

Family members or those with connections to an expired grave will be asked to renew the site from $68 per year with a minimum extension of five years.

Adelaide Cemeteries chief executive Michael Robertson said if a licence holder chooses not to renew their lease the site will be re-used.

“Adelaide Cemeteries recognises the need to provide ongoing burial sites for the local community being a major cemetery in the northern Adelaide metropolitan area,” he said.

“This planned and sensitive program gives licence holders the opportunity to renew their lease on a site and ensure that expired sites are cared for in a dignified way.”

The process of reusing a site involves recovering remains and placing them within an ossuary box before they are reinterred at a lower depth in the same site.

Unclaimed cremated remains are scattered within the cemetery grounds.

If a family do not renew and claim the associated monument, it is reduced to gravel sized stone chips and reused within the cemetery grounds things such as a road base.

“The re-use of graves and ashes memorial sites is permitted under the South Australian Burial and Cremation Act 2013,” Mr Robertson said.

“These provisions, regarded as sustainable cemetery practice, ensure the ongoing availability of graves and memorial sites in established metropolitan cemeteries.”

Adelaide Cemeteries Authority. Enfield Memorial Park

Several factors have accelerated the need for the re-use of sites at the cemetery prompting the program.

“The expired sites program aims to embrace the history of Enfield Memorial Park while responding to the changing needs and burial demands of the increasingly diverse community it serves,” Mr Robertson said.

“The renewal of graves and burial sites at Enfield Memorial Park is about ensuring we can serve community needs in coming years.

“It is important to note that this is a two year process to make contact with the interment right holder.”

In accordance with South Australian legislation the Adelaide Cemeteries Authority offers Interment Rights for a period of 50 or 99 years for burial and memorial sites.

All interment records are associated with the location, and the records remain available for searching in the Adelaide Cemeteries record search.

“If you find a family member or another site of interest, please contact Adelaide Cemeteries. A member of our team can outline options for you to maintain your connection with the grave,” Mr Robertsons said.