Standing room only at Australia's first vertical cemetery

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2005

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...