10 minutes with… Adelaide Cemeteries CEO Michael Robertson
As CEO of SA’s largest cemetery provider, Michael Robertson oversees West Terrace Cemetery, Cheltenham Cemetery, Smithfield Memorial Park and Enfield Memorial Park. Business Insight spoke to the CEO about urban legends, innovation in his space and our ageing population.
You’ve been in the cemeteries world for 17 years now. How did you first become involved and what drew you to this space?
Death is a part of life, and yet, especially in Western cultures, we’re so far removed from it. We don’t speak about death. I suspect out of fear.
As CEO of Adelaide Cemeteries, I am driven to broadening the role of a cemetery as a thriving community space. I am driven to fostering conversations between family members about their end-of-life wishes and ensuring we have enough burial space for future generations.
The privilege of helping South Australians navigate one of life’s most significant events is what drew me to working at Adelaide Cemeteries. I started as Head of Operations, Infrastructure and Environment, working with a team driven to create innovative cemetery spaces for the community.
Our cemeteries trace the evolution of modern burial spaces.
West Terrace records part of our state’s history and is designed in the Gothic style. It is South Australia’s oldest cemetery, which has Australia’s first dedicated military burial ground with more than 4000 WWI and WWII military personnel laid to rest. Then we have Enfield Memorial Park which is Australia’s first lawn tablet cemetery and is the largest area of manicured parklands in the northern suburbs.
I take pride in how we meet the diverse end-of-life wishes of the community, including the many different religions and cultures in South Australia. This includes our Islamic burial ground at Smithfield, the Buddhist Garden at Enfield and the mausoleum at Cheltenham.
One of the cemeteries you oversee is the West Terrace Cemetery. As a kid, I’d always hold my breath driving past because of some urban legend. What’s the strangest story you’ve heard associated with one of your cemeteries?
I think all those urban legends about cemeteries arise from the taboos surrounding death. We are committed to breaking these down.
Our night tours at West Terrace are incredibly popular as well as Death Over Dinner where we have an expert panel discussion on various aspects of dying and death. Our annual olive oil release, made from fruit grown on 150-year-old trees at West Terrace, is aimed at encouraging people to think about how they’d like to be commemorated and discuss this with loved ones.
One story that springs to mind, which is more amusing than strange, is a tale from the late Barry Humphries who was in town performing and one night decided to pay his respects at the grave of renowned musician Percy Grainger.
Along with Peter Goers, they ventured to West Terrace but were unable to find the exact location among the tens of thousands of memorials. Mr Humphries reportedly called on spirits to assist and the pair were seemingly guided to Mr Grainger’s final place of rest in the dark. Peter Goers availed us of this very amusing tale at a West Terrace Cemetery book launch.
Many wouldn’t associate your industry with innovation; it’s largely about end-of-life and tradition. How have you driven innovative practices in your time as Adelaide Cemeteries CEO?
In the race to net zero by 2050, there’s one Australian industry at risk of falling behind – cemeteries and crematoria.
Our Evergreen Community Precinct at Enfield Memorial Park is home to world-leading cremators that reduce operational emissions by up to 90 per cent. Installed and operational since 2023, we are the first and only cemetery in the Asia Pacific to successfully implement a European standard full-filtration system, and the first cemetery operator in Australia to gain internationally recognised ISO 14001 Environmental Certification.
Australia’s current minimum environmental standards for cremation, based on research conducted in 2008, are no longer enough. In my role as CEO and on the international Board of the Australasian Cemeteries and Crematoria Association, I have initiated an industry-wide conversation to work towards realistic and achievable new emissions standards. This has been achieved overseas.
In terms of other innovations, I’m always pleased to see how our children’s nature play space, which is one of its kind in Australia, brings local families into Enfield to enjoy the grounds. We also have plans for a community garden.
Tell me about the Evergreen Community Precinct and what challenges you faced there to deliver such an expansive project?
The Evergreen Community Precinct is a once-in-a-generation project creating a new community asset to serve South Australia for decades to come.
It’s nestled in the beautiful grounds of Enfield Memorial Park, set amongst 1400 shrubs and 50 trees, walking paths, peaceful reflection and recreational areas, including the children’s nature play space. Five function and reflection rooms can hold from 20 to 500 guests with state-of-the-art AV and livestreaming options for services.
Our café, 1947 Coffee Co., has a commercial kitchen with full-time chef on site who is dedicated to creating a diverse menu from a network of local food and beverage suppliers. We even grow on-site some produce used in the café.
We knew there was a need for a large state-of-the-art function facility with a 500+ capacity. The ultimate challenge was to ensure the building was not an imposing edifice. This is why it’s curved rather than square and made of sandstone, with floor-to-ceiling windows providing a spectacular view to the coast. It’s also positioned into the side of a hill, so it sits within the landscape.
This beautiful community space is seeing locals pop by for their morning coffee and muffin on the way to work, walk their dog, do tai chi or have a business meeting in the café.
This is how we start conversations about death, by making cemeteries places where people visit when they’re not burying a loved one or paying their respects at a memorial site.
We’re living in a period where the older generations are getting closer to the end of their life. They’re big cohorts of South Australians. How is Adelaide Cemeteries preparing for this eventuality?
We need to talk about death because, as a nation, we’re facing the difficult challenge of how to meet the end-of-life needs and expectations of an ageing population and an increasing death rate.
While today, about 70 per cent of people are cremated, some growing religions and cultures in South Australia require burial.
There is increasing pressure to find more land for housing as our suburbs grow. We can offer green space for community activities within the grounds of our memorial parks. Enfield Memorial Park is a perfect example of that. Development has brought higher-density housing into the neighbourhood and our grounds are a green oasis.
We believe this can be replicated in the south of Adelaide, where there are growing housing communities and the necessity to ensure we can meet the needs of those people in the coming decades.
How is your industry changing and how are you prepared to meet those changes?
We’re getting regular enquiries from people wanting eco-friendly end-of-life options. We have been encouraged by the increasing popularity of our natural burial grounds at Enfield Memorial Park and Smithfield Memorial Park. These burial grounds allow South Australians to be laid to rest in a biodegradable coffin or shroud, so that everything that’s buried can return to the earth naturally.
Natural organic reduction, popularly known as human composting, is a new burial trend sweeping across the US. The process involves the body of the deceased being placed into a reusable vessel, along with plant material such as wood chips and straw. Overseas, bodies are turned into soil in controlled conditions at an accelerated rate, which can be used to plant trees and enrich conservation land and gardens.
Human composting is not currently permitted in Australia and would require legislative change. We are closely watching developments on this as we continue to meet the end-of-life needs of the many diverse groups of people in our community.
What’s upcoming for Adelaide Cemeteries?
Mother’s Day is always a special day for Adelaide Cemeteries. Families can submit photos of important women in their lives who are now at rest, as part of a photo tribute to music that will play in our Wattle 1 Reflection Room at Evergreen. We’re also offering complimentary filter coffee and tea.
