Australia’s ‘green’ graveyard uses GPS to find graves
- April 23rd, 2008
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Now the environmentally conscious can continue their quest to clean up this dump we call Earth by requesting to be buried near Lismore Memorial Park Cemetery in the Northern Rivers region of Australia.
“The deceased will be buried in biodegradable coffins between gum trees in a protected koala sanctuary,” according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Headstones must be made from natural rock and the Lismore Council of cemeteries prefer that coffins be made from “woven wicker, plantation pine, or recycled cardboard.”
Since the burial land isn’t laid out like a traditional cemetery, grave sites can be placed just about anywhere and, once placed, graves are marked with GPS coordinates. Friends and family who wish to visit their deceased loved ones can use handheld GPS devices provided by the cemetery to find their way back to the graves.
Burial sites in Lismore cost about $2000 versus the $3000 price tag for a more traditional burial. Similar “natural” burial sites exist in a few other areas of Australia and in about 228 places in Britain.
Mike Salisbury
2008-04-30 11:12:38
Natural Burial Around the World
The modern concept of natural burial began in the UK in 1993 and has since spread across the globe. According the Centre for Natural Burial, http://naturalburial.coop there are now several hundred natural burial grounds in the United Kingdom and half a dozen sites across the USA, with others planned in Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and even China.
A natural burial allows you to use your funeral as a conservation tool to create, restore and protect urban green spaces.
The Centre for Natural Burial provides comprehensive resources supporting the development of natural burial and detailed information about natural burial sites around the world. With the Natural Burial Co-operative newsletter you can stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the rapidly growing trend of natural burial including, announcements of new and proposed natural burial sites, book reviews, interviews, stories and feature articles.
The Centre for Natural Burial
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