South Australia wants to use the old asylum seeker detention centre at Inverbrackie in the Adelaide Hills to house about 800 Syrian refugees.
Premier Jay Weatherill has written to Prime Minister Tony Abbott calling for the facility to be made available to help with the emerging humanitarian crisis.
"It's ready to go, it's good quality accommodation and it could make an immediate response to this crisis," Mr Weatherill said on Monday.
Inverbrackie was used to house asylum seeker families from 2010 to 2014 and the federal government has since called for expressions of interest for its future use with a view to selling it off.
The premier said earlier that safe haven visas should be used to allow Syrian refugees to come to SA.
A similar approach was taken to help refugees fleeing unrest in Kosovo in the late 1990s.
Mr Weatherill said every state and territory should be helping people fleeing the Syrian conflict.
"If there's a moral imperative to bomb Syria then there's a moral imperative for us to provide safe haven for those people affected by those activities," he said.
The South Australian government has also asked local welfare agencies to consider what support they can provide.
Federal Labor Leader Bill Shorten has urged Mr Abbott to allow an additional 10,000 Syrian refugees to come to Australia and to spend $100 million on aid for the region.
Mr Weatherill said if Labor's proposal was adopted, SA could expect to take between 700 and 800.
