AAEV first started talking about ‘dying sustainably’, along with living sustainably, in 2004.
The Natural Burial Group took ideas to AGMs, organised village surveys, sought advice from State and Local Government, helped the late Hon Bob Such write his Adelaide Cemeteries Report, and had input into the new Burial and Cremation Act & Regulations. Support for a natural burial ground at the Eco Village increased as the number of numbers grew, with the reality of a few deaths and serious illnesses spurring us on.
After a 12 year journey, the AAEV Natural Burial Ground was established. The first burial took place in late 2016.
In 2017, AAEV became legally registered as a Natural Burial Authority.
A small secure area is designated as a registered burial ground. It is not a cemetery.
Our natural burial ground is for our residents and immediate family members, Village founders, long-term tenants and former owner-residents forced by health or disability to relocate into residential care.
Others may be considered on a case-by-case basis.
All enquiries and to make visiting arrangements, please contact: aaevsecretary@gmail.com
Detailed guidelines for Next of Kin (Nok) can be found here.
Information for Funeral Directors can be found here.
The principles of natural burial are:
- To return the body to Nature as fast and non-toxically as possible
- Burial at low density and relatively shallow for faster breakdown
- The body is not embalmed or subjected to any toxic substances
- If clothed, biodegradable clothing or shrouding is used
- The body is buried in a bio-degradable container or shroud; any plastic sheeting used must be bio-degradable. If bio-degradable sheeting is not available, it is the responsibility of the funeral director to use adequate cloth lining and absorbent materials with the burial container to ensure that no leakage occurs
- Coffin construction should not include any toxic substances or non-bio-degradable elements such as persistent plastics, solvents, paints, or metals
- The grave is located in natural bushland or an indigenous vegetation setting
- There is no graveside memorialisation
- Graves are left undisturbed, not reused after a fixed period of time (“in perpetuity”)
- Care is taken not to allow excessive density of burials (at least 9-10 m2/interment)
Place of peace
Walk between the standing stones,
to sit where peace can quiet your soul.
Listen as a breeze ripples the pond,
and whispers softly through slender trees.
This is the voice that speaks our memories,
of love and all that we have shared.
Cloud shadows move amongst the trees,
across the hillsides, along the valley.
They pass, as we do, through changes,
summer to winter, baking sun to howling storm
that bends the trees, and booms in from the sea.
We are becoming one with the earth
in this gentle place of long, slow time.
We are not weighed down by blankets of stone,
but covered by grass and trees,
whose soft beauty changes with the seasons.
There may be sadness in separation,
but it will not shake the firm belief
in nature’s wonderful final transformation,
that makes this glade a place of peace …… not grief.
By Elizabeth Heij
