Restoration Burial: simple, sensible, sustainable
A restoration burial combines the natural return of human remains to the earth with a practical plan to restore the environment. By using minimal resources and funding restoration of the natural landscape, this simple process provides a gentle farewell and a valuable, meaningful legacy.
Return to the earth
Non-embalmed remains are contained within a biodegradable coffin or shroud and buried at the minimum legal depth. This promotes natural decomposition and nutrient reuptake.
Part of nature
Graves are laid out in flowing lines within an organic landscape that has minimal built infrastructure. Burials are followed by the planting of native flora both within the burial ground and at restoration sites elsewhere.
New life
The environmental cost of every Restoration Burial is offset many times over by investment in accredited carbon offsets and bushland conservation and restoration. There are around 160,000 deaths in Australia every year. Imagine the effect when every funeral contributes in this way.
Building a national network of Restoration Burial Grounds
The foundational work of the Project has been the design and establishment of all the necessary legal structures and systems to create, administer and operate burial grounds across Australia’s States and Territories.
Concurrently, the Team has been developing the innovative designs and unique elements that set Restoration Burial Grounds apart from traditional and hybrid cemetery models. Much of this work has been located at a remote bush cemetery outside the township of Bendoc in the Victorian highlands. The Natural Burial Ground Trust of Australia (one of the Earth Funerals charities) took over the management of the Bendoc Cemetery, and re-established it as a model restoration burial ground.
During that same time, a number of key strategic alliances have been formed including collaborations with charitable partner, Sustainable Funeral Group based in Victoria, and the Project's lead environmental partner Nature Foundation based in South Australia.
All that strategic planning and design work paid off in August 2024. Over several months the Natural Burial Ground Trust of Australia and Nature Foundation progressed a proposal with the Alexandrina Council to establish Australia’s first restoration burial ground south of Adelaide on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
This was a significant milestone, with the next steps being a focussed fundraising campaign and site development planning as we work toward the opening in 2025. At the same time, in Victoria, we’re continuing work with councils, cemetery trusts and strategic partners exploring land options for a Restoration Burial Ground near Melbourne. And in Western Australia, discussions are progressing with a local Council for a site north of the city.
It’s through the persistence and dedication of the founding members, a strategy of concurrent activity and developing valuable partnerships, that authentic restoration burial will become an option for people all across the country
Looking to the future - technology meets legacy
The environmental cost of every Restoration Burial is offset many times over by investment in accredited carbon offsets and bushland conservation and restoration. There are around 160,000 deaths in Australia every year. Imagine the effect when every funeral contributes in this way.
Visit online from anywhere in the world to view the actual site and recall the story of the person’s life from a virtual ‘headstone’. Or visit a Restoration Burial Ground in person to experience the harmony of a natural setting. In either case, draw comfort from the sense of place and belonging - the knowledge that your loved one has returned to nature - and in doing so has contributed to the restoration of our planet.