Save the grave: Is a relative or friend on this list of graves about to be ‘reused’?
There are 759 graves in an Adelaide cemetery that are about to be “reused” – unless relatives of the deceased can be found. SEARCH OUR DATABASE
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Authorities are searching for relatives of people interred in 759 graves that are about to be reused to make room at Cheltenham cemetery.
The oldest of those graves belongs to one of the best-known pioneers of the Port Lincoln area, Samuel Tucknott, who died in Semaphore after “a long and painful illness” in 1879.
Rent on the Port Adelaide cemetery graves will soon expire and be used for new burials or cremations.
The Advertiser has published a list of the names as authorities urge families to come forward and renew the leases, ranging from $25 to $215 a year.
Adelaide Cemetery Authority chief executive Robert Pitt said about one in five families had come forward in the past when the names of their relatives were published after a 50-year lease expired and one in 20 for 99-year-old sites.
He said by law the authority had to search for relatives for two years before a grave could be reused at the end of a 99- or 50-year lease.
“These fees cover not only the maintenance of the site, but also care and maintenance of roadways, paths, lawns, fencing, rubbish removal, security and public toilets with the cemetery and the retention of cemetery records,” he said.
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Cheltenham became the first cemetery in Australia to reuse gravesites in 1987.
Tucknott who arrived in Adelaide from England on the Buckinghamshire in 1839 died 40 years later, aged 44.
Born in 1834, he and his wife Mary O’Reilly had nine children in 13 years and were among the first colonists to purchase farmland in the Port Lincoln district.
The most recent of the 759 expired burial sites is that of Karolina Nemeth, who died in 2001, aged 100.
“Renewal” means the original remains are dug up, and the headstone removed.
The grave is then excavated, the historic remains are buried deeper and the new deceased person is interred at the original depth.
Flinders University Professor of Archaeology Heather Burke said the reuse policy raised many social issues.
“If you look at it purely from the archaeological point of view and the heritage point of view, and the historical information that can be gained from those graves, you would have to say it is a bad idea,’’ she said.
“But on the other hand our population is forever growing and there are billions of people in the world so from a different sense, a property sense, there are other issues.
“The third issue is a moral one, which is that when those people bought their plots, or their families did, most did not do so under the impression it would be reused at some later time and the headstone taken away.
“There are so many issues wrapped up in this very complex policy and to look at it from any one side is unfair.’’
Save the Graves SA spokeswoman Kylie Willison said there had been less public anger when war veterans’ graves were better protected following publicity in 2015.
“But this is still a lot of money for individuals to pay and it is controversial,’’ she said.
Prof Burke said the graves of wealthy pioneering Adelaide families from the 1800s were better protected and many of those buried at Cheltenham were from “working class” backgrounds.
She said it was very difficult to trace relatives of those who died more than 100 years ago.
“One thing that is important is that we prefer that the headstone is never destroyed,’’ Prof Burke said.
The Adelaide Cemetery Authority was created in 2001 as a business owned by the State Government to manage 3000 burial and cremation services in the city each year.
The following year it responded to community backlash by stepping up efforts to find family members when graves were to be reused.
Mr Pitt said the publication of the list of 759 names was the beginning of a lengthy process, which could take years before the grave re-use was needed.