Expired Sites List & Information
The most recent expired sites listing can be downloaded in PDF format, using the link below.
Expired Sites (196kB)
Under South Australian legislation all grave and memorial sites carry limited tenure. This ensures cemeteries can maintain their facilities to an appropriate standard. Licence fees provide an income stream that is required for ongoing maintenance of gardens and grounds.
Limited tenure also enables cemeteries to manage the issue of limited space. Based on current rates, without being able to re-use grave and memorial sites, Centennial Park will reach full capacity for first time burials within 20 years.
Centennial Park is a limited tenure cemetery, meaning that burial and memorial positions are licenced for a set period of time. For burial it is 50 years and for memorial, 30 to 99 years.
Prior to expiry of the licence, Centennial Park sends a letter to the licence holder. This becomes complicated if the licence holder has not notified us of any address changes.
We also place notification on the grave or memorial when the site has expired asking the licence holder or any other interested party to contact us. Advice is also published in the Public Notices in The Advertiser and The Australian directing readers to the Centennial Park web site for a detailed listing.
If after these actions and a minimum period of 2 years has elapsed, licence holders for these expired sites can not be contacted, control of the sites reverts to Centennial Park, and they may be re-used.
The process of re-using a gravesite is treated with dignity, care and respect. Skeletal remains are carefully recovered from graves and are individually placed into ossuary boxes and reinterred at a lower depth in the same grave.In the case of cremated remains, they will be removed and re-interred at a dedicated unmarked location within Centennial Park.
Licence holders who do not want a site to be re-used can renew or extend the licence.
Licences can be extended for a minimum of five years and up to a maximum of 99 years, then a new licence must be issued. The right to extend or renew a licence can be taken up by anyone.
This means as long as there is a person interested who is willing to pay the licence fees, a grave or memorial can be secured from generation to generation.
We urge anyone holding a licence for a grave or memorial site to keep the licence with their personal documents and to notify Centennial Park of address changes.
We are happy to provide a copy of the full policy upon request.