It may seem at first like an unlikely source, but Adelaide's oldest cemetery has released its very own olive oil harvested from trees growing on its property.

There are around 60 olive trees at the West Terrace Cemetery, believed to be Olea Europaea — a small and fairly common type of olive. The majority sit in a row between the property and the main road.

While olive oil is not necessarily the cemetery's core business, it is something its chief executive Robert Pitt believes is very special.

"I don't know of any other cemeteries that produce olive oil. We're quite proud of it, it's unique and we get a really good reaction from it," Mr Pitt said.

"We get a couple of tonnes of olives off them [during harvest] and my staff and some volunteers pick them, it's a fairly manual intensive job."

Each year, Mr Pitt and his staff partner with a local company to help press and bottle the oil. But this year's batch of 200 bottles is commemorating the cemetery's 180th anniversary.

"We have from year to year a variation in the quality, but that's my understanding of the fruit and of course it depends on the quality of the olives and when you pick them," Mr Pitt said.

There are around 60 olive trees at the West Terrace Cemetery believed to be Olea Europa. ( Supplied: Adelaide Cemetery Authority )

West Terrace Cemetery is Adelaide's oldest, with the first burial at the site dating back to 1837.

The olive trees have been around since the 1860s, but how they came to be there remains a mystery, according to Mr Pitt.

"The first curator who took interest in the landscape was Henry Brooks. He was here from 1861 and retained an interest in the cemetery for 30 or so years after he left," he said.

"We think he worked with George Francis, the superintendent of the Botanic Gardens, and who brought the first olive trees to South Australia and produced the first olive oil."

Cemeteries seeking new links with the living

The olive oil is part of an effort by the Adelaide Cemeteries Authority to help people think of cemeteries as not just a places to mourn the dead, but as spaces with a new lease of life.

"There seems to be a growing interest in death and dying, and there is certainly an interest in genealogy" Mr Pitt said.

"Also [it is important to educate people] about the roles of cemeteries as providing open space or space for passive walking or other recreation activities, and thoroughfares in communities."

The olive trees have been around since the 1860s, but remain a mystery. ( ABC News: Caroline Winter )

The oil is only sold at one outlet, Jagger Fine Foods, in the Adelaide Central Market. Outlet owner Robyn Siebert said she gets all sorts of responses from customers.

"Some people are quite curious, some people are a little unnerved by it, some like to make good jokes about how well fertilised the olives might be," Ms Siebert said.

"I have some customers who live locally, so they really like the idea that it's a very local olive oil."

It is that idea of being local and connected that makes the West Terrace Cemetery oil unique, according to cultural heritage expert Alice Gorman from Flinders University.

"I think that is pretty unusual, I've never come across a similar example of certainly not in Australia, of such a thing happening," Dr Gorman said.

"What we're looking at the in the modern era is a new appreciation of cemeteries as heritage places that are important in connecting us to the past.

"Death used to be much more a part of people's lives. [Today] it's more likely people will die in a hospital or hospice so we have lost that integration with death in our societies."