Threat to gravesites can be thwarted by laws protecting significant sites

FAMILIES have been urged to nominate the graves of war-veteran relatives for heritage listing to protect the sites from reuse. READ: 170-year-old police notebook found

First female woman police officer Kate Cocks in 1908. 1900s p/

THE State Government has urged families to nominate the graves of war-veteran relatives for heritage listing to protect the sites from reuse.

Responding to concerns from families of war veterans who don’t want their loved ones disturbed, a spokeswoman for Deputy Premier John Rau said graves would be protected against the reuse policy if they were heritage listed.

“Grave sites of local heritage significance can also be identified in local heritage surveys by individual local councils and, under the provisions of the Development Act 1993, be included in a list of local heritage places in their respective Development Plans,” she said.

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Some war graves, and the graves of veterans who do not have their service identified on headstones, are being reused when families can’t be found or do not extend lease payments.

Under South Australian rules, families must be identified and pay thousands of dollars for renewal fees when current lease arrangements expire, otherwise remains can be buried deeper and strangers laid on top of the loved one.

An interim agreement organised by Mr Rau saves graves not protected by the Federal Government at Centennial Park, but this runs out in 2016.

RSL deputy president Steve Larkins said the service record of any person could now be checked by cemeteries at the RSL’s “virtual war memorial”.

SA’s first female police officer Kate Cocks pictured in 1908.

“The virtual war memorial means people can quickly determine if someone is an ex-serviceman,” he said.

“There is no formal obligation (that cemeteries check war records before site are reused) but it would be nice to think that they might and we are making that easier to do.”

The Advertiser revealed yesterday that lobby group Saving the Graves South Australia has begun to organise a list of war veterans whose grave leases have expired and would not be renewed by family members.

Saving the Graves SA organiser Kirrily Burton said it had been flooded with inquiries after yesterday’s article.

“This is not a cemetery issue. The problem is the system which requires families firstly to be found and then to pay when they can’t afford it,’’ she said.

SA Heritage Council Judith Carr chair said the nomination of a grave would have to meet strict criteria if put to the council for state heritage listing.

Flinders University lecturer Alice Gorman said most people would believe it was better to keep historic grave sites than destroy them for administrative or financial reasons.

“There is often a disjunction between the reasonable expectation that there needs to be someone from the family to look after the grave and the fact that these people are of significance locally, in the state or nationally,” she said.