Frequently Asked Questions

Generally, at Centennial Park standard sized burial positions [link] can accommodate up to three (3) burials and six (6) sets of ashes. However, grave types do vary, so we recommend speaking with our team about your needs and coming to view the different areas.

Personal mementos can be buried with your loved one. You should discuss this with your funeral director to ensure the items will not be a potential hazard and approval has been received from Centennial Park.

Headstones for burial positions must be constructed and installed by a monumental mason in accordance with Australian Standards and Centennial Park’s Operating Policy. 

There are differing specifications for the height and width of the headstones in the various burial areas at Centennial Park. Our team can provide you with the specifications for the areas you are interested in.

A monumental mason will assist you to ensure that the headstone is compliant with all the required specifications and will liaise with Centennial Park, on your behalf, to gain approval for the work to be completed.

If you don’t have a monumental mason in mind, we can help by providing you with the contact details of those in your area. 

Please note: A headstone or plaque is the property of the Interment Right Holder of the position and only they can authorise a headstone to be placed or refurbished.

Yes. Although, if the cremation has not been pre-planned, families are generally unaware of the choices available when it comes to cremation and often don’t think to tell the funeral director where they would like the cremation to take place.

If you wish for your cremation to take place at Centennial Park, please include this decision in your end-of-life planning or if arranging a funeral for a loved one ask your funeral director to contact Centennial Park for the cremation.

We believe our cremation service is second to none. We treat every single person with the same level of dignity, care, and respect. Our crematorium is a welcoming, light-filled space with two lush indoor atriums, and set in the middle of our beautiful grounds.

We believe in complete transparency and welcome the community to view our crematorium. We regularly conduct public and community group tours to answer all your questions.

Some families wish to be present at the time of cremation, and some cultures wish to be involved in the cremation process itself. All of this is possible at Centennial Park.

The identity of your loved one is tracked and checked from the moment they enter the Crematorium. Two identity cards are created and will remain with the coffin throughout the entirety of the cremation process.

The coffin is held in a cool room until all paperwork is checked, completed, and double-checked. 

Before the cremation, metal handles are removed from the coffin and recycled.

The heat of the cremators reaches up to 1100 degrees Celsius, fluctuating slightly during the process. 

Each cremation takes up to 90 minutes, but this can vary. The entire process takes around four hours, which includes:

• Cremation within the main cremating chamber

• Cooling in the secondary air chamber before being placed into an ash cooling hopper

• Processing of cremated remains into a fine, sand-like powder. These are what are commonly referred to as the “ashes”.  Ashes are placed into a sealed standard ash container or urn with identification label.

After the cremation, any metals located inside the coffin, are removed, and sent for recycling.  Any melted metals or jewellery will not be retrievable after the cremation.

Centennial Park currently sends the removed metals and coffin handles for recycling to OrthoMetals in the Netherlands. The funds received from this recycling are then used in a charitable way to benefit our community. Visit Our Community page to learn more.

Most pacemakers and internal defibrillators need to be removed prior to cremation as these implants can explode at high temperatures. This can not only cause damage to the cremator but place crematorium team members at risk. The funeral director ensures this process is conducted before your loved one arrives at Centennial Park. 

Yes, the only exception is in the case of a mother and baby, or perinatal twin children (up to 28 days old) if this is what the family wishes.  

Cremated remains are made up of calcified bone fragments, which are processed into a fine, sand-like granular consistency, the “ashes” most people are familiar with.

Centennial Park has strict quality control measures and checking points in place throughout the entirety of the cremation process. Each coffin is identified, and identification labels are placed on the outside of the cremator once the coffin is placed into it. 

The label is only then removed from the cremator when the ashes are transferred to a cooling hopper and the identification label is placed with the cooling hopper. All cremated ashes are kept separate throughout the cremation process.

We understand that the final decision about where your ashes will be placed, and how you will be remembered, can take some time.

Contemplation Court at Centennial Park is a temporary ashes memorial area. Ashes can be placed in Contemplation Court for up to six months with a temporary marker, giving family and friends a place to visit and remember while they make a decision on a permanent memorial.

We are proud to be the only cemetery in South Australia and the first in the country to offer this service to our community.

While many families choose to memorialise within one of the many stunning gardens at Centennial Park, some families choose either to keep the ashes at home or to scatter them. 

We recommend memorialisation as it provides the opportunity, for extended family and friends, and even future generations, to remember a life and have a physical anchor point.

If having ashes at home in an urn is important, you may also like to consider having a plaque-only memorial at Centennial Park. Centennial Park offers areas within our beautiful gardens where a plaque can be placed without ashes.

No, we do not allow ashes to be scattered within the grounds of Centennial Park, but our memorial team can assist you to decide on the best way to honour you loved ones wishes. 

Did you know, research has shown that the high pH and salt levels can make the impact of scattering ashes worse for ecosystems. Human cremated ash is high in sodium – 200 to 2000 times higher than plants can tolerate. They are rich in phosphates, calcium, potassium and sodium, all of which are not in the balance required by plants for healthy growth.[1]

The Living Legacy Forever Flowers Garden is a new sustainable memorial option available for the first time in South Australia exclusively at Centennial Park. It is an environmentally conscious way to return loved one’s ashes to the earth by using a scientific process to turn the ashes into flowers that will live on in the beautiful, landscaped garden for friends, family and future generations to enjoy. 

[1] Living Legacy project research paper, Cole, Thaw and Chudleigh, 2015-2016

A memorial is a place where family and friends can visit their loved one for many generations to come. Memorials offer comfort not only as a tribute to those we’ve lost, but as a place for the living to reflect and remember. Centennial Park provides a wide range of ashes memorials varying from traditional rose gardens to contemporary boulders, water features, and walls that can accommodate ashes or plaque-only positions.

We acknowledge and appreciate the importance of floral and ornamental tributes to those interred at Centennial Park.

We encourage fresh, native, or dried floral tributes at burial positions in the holders that are a part of the memorial, or ash memorial positions in the vases provided by Centennial Park. Re-usable vases are available from dispensers located throughout our gardens. Once the flowers die, our team will remove them from the memorial and place the vases back in the dispensers for others to use. 

For safety reasons, glass, ceramic, or any other breakable flower holders are not to be placed on memorials.

Centennial Park may remove any tributes that are deemed to be unsightly, offensive, or a risk to public safety.  Artificial flowers will be removed once they become faded and/or old/torn.

No items, including flowers, are to be placed on the grass or pathways in front of headstones or memorial plaques. This blocks access to other memorial positions and our ability to maintain and mow the area.

We kindly remind our families that no additional plants or landscaping is authorised in our grounds, and if found, will be removed.

At Centennial Park, we are proud to provide beautiful, peaceful, and reflective gardens for our families to remember their loved ones. To keep our gardens maintained at such a high level, we are continually upgrading the features and plants in our Park.

We will always endeavour to contact our families regarding any changes we are planning to make that directly affect their memorial.

The Interment Right Holder is the official person who owns the right to the grave, ashes memorial, or plaque-only position. This person is the only one who can make decisions regarding the position. This includes:

• Authorising any further burials or ashes placements.
• Placing or refurbishing a headstone or plaque.
• Transferring the ownership of the Right to somebody else.
• Surrendering the rights of the position back to Centennial Park.

If the Interment Right Holder is deceased, a Transfer of Interment Right form is to be completed to pass the ownership of the position to someone living. Our friendly Team can be contacted on 08 8276 6011 to assist with transferring or renewing a position. It is important that Interment Rights are transferred to a living person so that we can always maintain contact regarding any notifications or changes to a position.

Under the Burial and Cremation Act 2013, burial and memorial positions carry a limited tenure, meaning that the Interment Rights for burial and memorial positions are issued for a set period. The position may be reused once an Interment Right has expired and the position reclaimed by Centennial Park. Each cemetery has its own operating policy with regards to renewals and any costs associated with renewals. 

For more information about Expired Positions click here.

Centennial Park also offers the option of perpetuity for those who want to ensure their loved one is memorialised forever. For more information on Perpetual Interment rights click here.

Yes, Centennial Park provides the option of Interment Rights held in perpetuity.

A Perpetual Interment Right means that future generations have a place to come and reflect on the life of a family member, and it eliminates the worry about who will bear the cost of renewing the Interment Right in the future.

At Centennial Park, perpetual Interment Rights are available for all existing and future Interment Rights. 

For more information on Perpetual Interment rights click here.

Links to live streamed services are available here. 

To view a private live stream service, you will need the access PIN number provided by the family.

Please note not all services are live streamed.

For the best experience, you should consider:

Internet Connection

A quality, stable internet connection will ensure the best viewing experience. If viewing on a mobile device over a wireless network, the signal may be unreliable, and the connection may drop in and out. We recommend watching the live stream from a fixed internet connection.

Web Browser

There are many external factors which may affect the live stream including internet speed, network reliability, the software installed on your computer, and the hardware or device you are using. All of these may affect the overall experience. The recommended web browsers are:

• Windows 10 (Microsoft Edge)
• macOS 10.6+ (Safari and QuickTime)
• iOS 3.0+ (Safari)
• Android 4.1+ (Google Chrome)

The live stream platform has been designed to accommodate thousands of viewers. We suggest you take the time to check your stream in advance, so you are ready to go prior to the service commencing.

The live stream player will automatically select the most appropriate stream to match your internet connection speed. This has been designed to minimise buffering and increase the reliability of your live stream service.

There is a pause button on the bottom left of the screen which can be used while watching a live stream or recording.

Simply contact the family and they will be able to provide you with the details and live stream PIN.

All live streams include audio. Please ensure your device’s speakers are set at an appropriate volume or alternatively you can use headphones.

Sometimes, due to internet connectivity issues, your location and our servers, video and audio may not synchronize and can cause a delayed audio and picture.

While live streams can be viewed on mobile devices over wireless networks, we cannot guarantee that reliability of the live stream, particularly in locations where signal is unreliable. Please consider watching the stream from a fixed internet connection.

Please try refreshing the page in your browser. If this doesn’t work, please close the web page, and reload the event.

Please ensure your device speakers are set at an appropriate volume or alternatively you can use headphones.

Also make sure that the volume on the video isn’t muted. You can find a on the bottom right of the screen and it can be used while watching a live stream or recording.

If the internet connection is lost and the connection is re-established, the live stream will automatically continue from its current position.

Unfortunately, internet connection is something we can’t control and therefore we cannot guarantee that reliability of the live stream, particularly in locations where signal is unreliable.

If the connection is down for a lengthy period, where possible we will try to provide you with a recording of the service after the event.

Please consider watching the stream from a fixed internet connection.

No, Centennial Park does not cremate pets or animals.

Yes, and we encourage people who are interested to contact us for a tour so they can see for themselves the environment we offer and meet those who provide the utmost care of loved ones.

Centennial Park offers Behind the Scenes tours so that everyone can see our beautiful grounds and learn about how we operate. Accompanied by one of our friendly team members, the tour takes you through our spectacular gardens and includes an in-depth Crematorium tour. A motorised buggy is provided for the group’s comfort.