Standing room only at Australia's first vertical cemetery
SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian company is set to open a vertical cemetery, with bodies buried standing up and without coffins in order to preserve the environment and cut costs.
Planning officials in Victoria state have given local company Palacom the go-ahead to establish the cemetery at Derrinallum 180 km (112 miles) west of Melbourne.
Palacom director Tony Dupleix told the Australian Associated Press, in a report Thursday, that the cemetery would offer a cheaper and environmentally friendlier burial.
Bodies would be stored at a Melbourne morgue and transported to the site for burial in batches of 12 to 15 to minimise costs.
They would be encased in body bags and buried in individual pre-drilled three-metre-deep (10-foot) holes. The site would be returned to grazing land once it was stable, he said.
Burials would cost about 1,000 dollars (780 US).
"When you die, you are returned to the earth with a minimum of fuss and with no paraphernalia that would affect the environment," Dupleix said. "You're not burning 90 kg of gas in a crematorium and there's no ongoing maintenance costs."
Darlington Cemetery Trust secretary Anna Jamieson said vertical burials would not replace traditional ones at its existing cemetery but would provide an attractive new option for some.
...reminds me of the movie nights of the living dead (me and my weird imagination) 