Post hole digger replaces grave digger's backhoe

A Victorian company has been given the go ahead to minimise environmental impact by burying human bodies vertically.

It will use a post hole digger at Derrinallum, 150km south west of Melbourne, to dig holes about 3.2m deep and 80cm in diameter, across a 4ha site near the town.

It expects to be able to install, in batches of 12 to 15, about 17,000 bodies surrounded by biodegradable body bags, on the site. Once full the site will revert to growing clover and ryegrass for cattle and sheep.

Because Derrinallum is close to Mount Elephant, an old volcano among many in the Western District, Palacom, the company behind the Australia-first idea, expects to have to use quite aggressive cutting points on the digger to penetrate the underlying rock.

The Darlington Cemetery Trust will manage the cemetery. Anna Jamieson of the trust, said the plots would be ideal for environmentally-minded people, but conceded it was unlikely to replace time-honoured horizontal interments. Palacom estimates up to 5% of the population will be attracted to the idea.

Vertical interments are allowed in the Netherlands and in some Asian countries where land for new cemeteries is scarce.

Founding Palacom shareholder, director and spokesman Tony Dupleix, says burials will cost about $1200 each compared with about $6000 for a conventional burial. Also, when compared with cremation, vertical burial saves about 90kg of gas that would be used in a crematorium to turn a body into ash.

He said Palacom expects to bury between 300 and 400 people a year. But graves will not be marked with headstones. Plaques commemorating those buried there, will be installed nearby.

Palacom has been working on the idea for more than 20 years and raised $100,000 to start the concept, with contributions of $5000 from each of 20 people.

Dupleix said Palacom had to deal with practically every government agency “you could think of. And when people in local government say, `Yes, we're dealing with it,' don't take their word for it. Ask for evidence.”