Enfield Memorial Park releases list of grave sites with leases due to expire

A major Adelaide cemetery has just released its latest list of people whose lease on their eternal resting place is about to expire.

The families of hundreds of deceased people buried and cremated at Enfield Memorial Park, are in danger of losing their loved ones’ gravesite.

Every two years, the memorial park reminds those with connections to a nearly expired grave to renew the gravesite lease - with the minimum extension period starting at five years.

For un-renewed sites, cemetery officials will recover the remains and place them in an ossuary box before they are reinterred at a lower depth in the same site, while unclaimed cremated remains will be scattered within the cemetery grounds.

Speaking to The Advertiser in 2022, chief executive Michael Robertson said a site will be reused if a licence holder chooses not to renew their lease.

ENTER YOUR LOVED ONE’S NAME TO CHECK THE LIST

“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,” he said.

For unclaimed or unrenewed associated monuments, cemetery officials will reduce it to gravel sized stone chips so they can be reused as a road base within the cemetery grounds.

Under the South Australian Burial and Cremation Act 2013, it is legal to reuse graves and ashes from memorial sites.

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

Adelaide Cemeteries launched a planned sensitive program to reconnect families with expired graves, along with several factors that have accelerated the need to reuse sites at the cemetery.

Mr Robertson said the program aims to “embrace the history of Enfield Memorial Park” and cater to the changing needs and burial demands of the community.

Enfield Memorial Garden CEO Michael Robertson. Picture: Sarah Reed Photography/Corporate Conversations

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.

“It is important to note that this is a two year process to make contact with the internment right holder,” Mr Robertson said.

For more than 70 years, Enfield memorial park has served as one of Adelaide’s major cemeteries in the northern metropolitan area.

“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.

Originally published as Enfield Memorial Park releases list of grave sites with leases due to expire