Adelaide’s Centennial Park Cemetery has become the first in Australia to use spatial technology to take its graveyard online.
The site of Sir Donald Bradman’s funeral, Centennial Park contains 134,000 burial and memorial sites. The new website maps the location of graves, so visitors can easily find information about their loved one’s final resting place.
The cemetery’s IT manager Matthew Morgan said visitors could go online to get directions and information including a person’s age, when they died and where they last lived.
“Attempting to locate a deceased loved one may seem like a daunting task when you first visit Centennial Park.
“With GIS technology, all the information and maps are there at the click of a button, hopefully making potentially difficult visits a little easier.
“It is especially beneficial to new or interstate visitors, people who haven’t visited for a long time, and those in mourning who want the experience to be as private as possible.”
The online cemetery uses GIS technology from location intelligence specialists Esri Australia.
The website will be complemented by a mobile phone application later this year, allowing visitors to navigate around the 40.5 hectare cemetery.
Esri Australia’s Adelaide Business Manager David Trengove said Centennial Park’s creative use of GIS reflected a growing trend in website design.
“GIS technology maps the geographic elements in an organisation’s data and translates it into a universal and easy-to-understand language that transcends culture, education and language.” Mr Trengove said.
“In the past year, GIS has been used during the Queensland floods, formed the basis of the nation’s first bushfire simulation tool and in conservation efforts for koala, turtle and penguin research.
“Centennial Park is the first organisation to use the technology to take a cemetery online.”
Centennial Park also plans to sell burial and memorial sites using the map search function on the website, including 3D views of memorial walls.
“People will be able to take a heritage tour on the cemetery’s website.” Mr Morgan said.
“Our rich history spans more than 75 years and GIS technology means for the first time, we will be able to convey this heritage to people easily and accurately.”
