Returned & Services League of Australia (South Australia Branch)
Policy for Management of Veterans’ Graves
The sobriquet “We will remember them - Lest We Forget” is synonymous with the
Returned & Services League (RSL) and is the baseline tenet of the RSL’s views in respect
of veteran graves and memorials.
Deceased Australian veterans’ remains are in locations as diverse as the fortunes of war
and, for those who survived, the subsequent peace.
The resting place of many is unknown; lost at sea or over land as a result of naval and air
and military operations where their remains have been consumed by the environment in
which they were lost.
Known war dead are interred in designated places under the control of the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) or the Australian Office of War Graves
(AOWG).
Designated Commonwealth War Graves Commission sites, and those administered by
the Office of Australian War Graves, are sites sacred to our national heritage and must be
respected as such. They are typified by the Western Front cemeteries in France and
Belgium, located on land ceded by the respective governments in perpetuity.
Where established War Graves (such as CWGC and AOWG) sites exist in Australia, such
sites should be retained in perpetuity and exempted from tenured lease arrangements
by legislation or regulation, if necessary.
Veterans who are deceased subsequent to their service in conflict may be
commemorated in a number of ways:
a.
AIF Cemetery. The AIF Cemetery at West Terrace in Adelaide, comprising
some 4,000 graves of AIF veterans who died post World War I has inherent
historical significance. It is exempted by the Adelaide Cemeteries Authority
from tenured re-use because of its heritage status. Consideration should be
given to formalising this by regulation / legislation from any re-use provision.
b.
Services Cemeteries Trust. This Trust is administered by the RSL in
collaboration with metropolitan and country cemetery authorities. Sites may
be full burial or cremation.
Sites in SA include:

AIF Cemetery, West Terrace, Adelaide (Heritage listed)

Derrick Garden of Remembrance at Centennial Park Cemetery, Daw
Park
Rev 0.1, 29/4/15

Kibby Garden of Remembrance at Enfield Memorial Park, Enfield

Pt Lincoln Garden of Remembrance, Pt Lincoln

Pt Pirie Garden of Remembrance, Pt Pirie

Upper Murray Garden of Remembrance, Renmark

RSL Graves - Currency Creek Cemetery, Goolwa
Service Cemeteries Trust sites are marked with commemorative plaques. RSL
should obtain an indication from the authorities of each of the above to
ascertain the situation at each in respect of tenured re-use.
Where a site may be subject to tenured re-use, the preservation and
conservation of the commemorative plaques should be required of the
cemetery authority such that they are photographed, documented and
uploaded to the RSL Virtual War Memorial website, and retained so as to
allow easy physical access, in for example, a commemorative wall.
c.
General interments. Many veterans are interred and or commemorated as
part of a family plot or similar arrangement, or as a single burial in the
general section of suburban or town cemeteries. Suburban sites will
generally be subject to tenured leases.
Where it is recorded that a veteran is interred or commemorated, the
Cemetery Authority should be required to ensure that any headstone /
plaque is to be physically preserved, recorded and documented by the
Cemetery Authority. The RSL advocates that upload of pertinent information
to the RSL Virtual War Memorial website be required.
Where no disclosure of service is made or is evident in cemetery records or
on headstones / plaques, the RSL is not in a position, nor is it appropriate for
it to advocate for any requirement or onus being placed on the Cemetery
Authority. Disclosure or otherwise is a family decision taken at the time of
interment. It is not the place of the RSL to retrospectively second guess
family intentions or wishes.
Tens of thousands of our war dead have no known grave. Contemporary practices such
as scattering the ashes of cremated deceased persons are an increasing trend. These
facts underline the contention that physical remains are arguably less critical than the
memorialisation of the person.
Where the remains of war dead are recovered on a battlefield, an established process
exists to ensure all reasonable efforts are made to identify any such remains and effect
an appropriate re-interment.
Rev 0.1, 29/4/15
However, once graves have been established, their future needs to be clearly
understood.

Where established War Graves (such as CWGC and AOWG) sites exist, such sites
should be retained in perpetuity and exempted from tenured lease arrangements
by legislation.

The AIF Cemetery on West Terrace has unique heritage and historical significance
and is to be exempted for any re-use provision in the same way as specified
historical precincts in the rest of West Terrace Cemetery.

Heritage cemeteries exist in various locations. They are generally not subject to
tenured re-use. RSL contends that this is entirely appropriate and supports the
application of heritage status in accordance with current practice. What remains
unresolved is how this might apply in the future. The issue in regional locations is
less clear; this is perhaps an issue for consideration by the Local Government
Association.

The RSL administers the Services Cemeteries Trust. Graves covered by the Service
Cemeteries Trust are located in a number of sites as per the RSL website. In
addition graves may exist elsewhere marked with Commemorative Plaques made
available through the Trust.

Whether or not these graves are subject to tenured re-use is a function of the
policy of individual Cemetery Authorities. Some of these are tenured. Others,
such as Kibby Gardens at Enfield Cemetery, are not because to do so would
disrupt the nature of the site.

The Services Cemeteries Trust does not have the capacity to renew tenured sites.
The RSL-SA requests that Cemetery Authorities consider following the approach
of the Adelaide Cemeteries Authority at Kibby Gardens in exempting grouped
veteran graves from tenured re-use arrangements.

Where veteran graves that are so-identified are located in a cemetery such that it
may be subject to tenured re-use, the preservation and conservation of
commemorative plaques and memorial headstones should be required of the
cemetery authority such that they are photographed, documented and retained
so as to allow easy physical access. A commemorative wall or similar would be an
appropriate means of achieving this without compromising available space to any
great degree.
Rev 0.1, 29/4/15

General interments. Many veterans are interred and or commemorated as part
of a family plot or similar arrangement, or as a single burial in the general section
of suburban cemeteries. These sites will generally be subject to tenured leases.
o
Where it is recorded that a veteran is interred or commemorated, the
Cemetery Authority should be required to ensure that any headstone /
plaque is to physically preserved, recorded and documented by the Cemetery
Authority. It is proposed that this process would include upload to the RSL
Virtual War Memorial website as a standard operating procedure.
o
Where no disclosure of service is made, is evident in cemetery records or on
headstones / plaques, the RSL is not in a position, nor is it appropriate, for it
to advocate for any requirement or onus being placed on the Cemetery
Authority. Disclosure or otherwise of service history is a family decision
taken at the time of interment. It is not the place of the RSL to
retrospectively second-guess family intentions or wishes where there is no
overt evidence.
o
The RSL-SA, the Services Cemeteries Trust and related agencies are not in any
position to pay for lease renewal.
o
There may be scope for the Services Cemeteries Trust to provide a plaque for
the service person at the family’s request, for inclusion in some kind of
perpetual memorialisation such as on a commemorative wall. Funding
mechanisms would need to be resolved because the Trust does not have the
capacity to do so.
Justification
The handling / interment of the physical remains of deceased persons varies significantly
across cultures. Methods include:
Below ground burial – generally with a memorial / commemorative headstone.
Above-ground repositories such as family mausoleums and ‘necropolis(i?)’;
literally, ‘cities of the dead’. These are popular in Continental European cultures.
Cremation, with or without repositories for the ashes
Ossaries are repositories of skeletal remains – common in Europe where they are
often described as ‘catacombs’ dating back centuries. In places like Verdun and
Caporetto (Italy) they are used to house the remains of war dead.
For hygiene and sanitation reasons, the management of burials sites is subject to
strict controls.
Rev 0.1, 29/4/15
All of the methods above require real estate, with cremation requiring the least.
Some forms of cremation, where the subject’s ashes are scattered, do not require
any.
T.J Hanna
State President
28 April 2015
Rev 0.1, 29/4/15