Cancer victim Allan Heywood received his dying wish this week and was buried upright in a biodegradable body bag in what is claimed to be Australia's greenest cemetery.    

A spokesman for Melbourne-based firm Upright Burials said Tuesday that Heywood, 64, got in ahead of more than 100 people who have since registered with the start-up company.

Upright Burials managing director Tony Dupleix said Heywood become the first person in Australia to be lowered feet first into a cylindrical grave 70 centimetres wide and 3 metres deep.

The hole, the first of what Dupleix hopes will be 30,000, was dug with with a rotary augur, a machine usually used to drill holes for power poles.

There is no marker or headstone for Heywood in the 4ha plot at Derrinallum, near Lismore. The location of his grave is identified only by coordinates and a grid reference on the gate of the Kurweeton Road Cemetery.

For Heywood, as for every other corpse that goes in the ground, a tree will be planted on a nearby hill.

"From the outset we questioned the need to bury people horizontally and in such a carbon-intensive manner," Dupleix said. "Most people are attracted by the simplicity of the project and the concept of being far more in touch with nature."

Source: The Sunday Daily Mail

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