Upright burials offered at Derrinallum

By Emily Sobey
Updated November 2 2012 - 12:58pm, first published December 15 2009 - 12:37pm

PEOPLE can now be buried feet first at Derrinallum and do their bit for the environment.Using a method it claims is a world first, Upright Burials is offering the "very Australian alternative" to traditional funerals, burying people standing up.While there have been no burials yet, bodies will be sent the four-hectare Kurweeton Rd Cemetery, near Mt Elephant and be buried upright in a grave 700mm in diameter and three metres deep.The approach includes burial in a biodegradable body bag instead of a coffin, with a tree planted on Mt Elephant to offset the low carbon emissions.After Upright Burials opened for business this month, managing director Tony Dupleix said there had been lots of bookings."Not everyone wants a fuss made about them when they die, not everyone wants a fancy headstone, they're just happy to be returned to the Earth," he said.Some people have already pre-paid for their funeral, with the company allowing online ordering and payment, to make the service cheap and easy. Mr Dupleix said inquiries had come from western Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne, where the company targeted.Despite the cheap cost of an upright burial at $2750 compared to an average funeral at about $7000, Mr Dupleix said money was not the issue for most people."Those I've spoken to I would think would be perfectly capable of paying for any funeral ceremony, so it's really the simplicity of it and the environmental aspect," he said.The Kurweeton Rd Cemetery is an annex cemetery for the Darlington Cemetery Trust, permitting vertical burials. The trust plans to build a memorial wall, where names of those buried upright will be inscribed.

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