Six Feet Under

How many of us really know about the act of burial? Funeral services are familiar territory but interment seems to be no man's land.

BY JACKIE O'NEILL

How many funerals have I attended? Given this assignment, I realised that I have never actually attended a burial! Burials are generally conducted in the middle of the day. Friends and family usually take a few hours leave to attend a funeral church service and often return immediately to work. For this reason I assume that there are many others, like myself, who do not really know what occurs at the cemetery.

There are no hard and fast guidelines concerning the digging of graves. Cemeteries are responsible for their own procedures to comply with individual State Workcover regulations. A cemetery must thoroughly document its risk assessment practices such as how to dig a grave, how to protect all personnel on site, how to use lowering devices, how to fill a grave and so on.

Victoria has a single Health Act covering funeral industry practices while most other States are administered by a multitude of departmental Acts. In today’s environment, corporate governance calls for risk assessment and risk management to a far greater extent than in the past.

A good number of people actually select their graves in advance. Also, families often go directly to a cemetery to inspect and choose the site which best fulfil their specific wishes. For example, some people prefer a grave atop a slope, others might like it near trees or they have a desire to be near the graves of their relatives.

Preparation

In the past, cemeteries engaged teams of diggers who strained for hours with picks and shovels to dig graves. Depending on the terrain, this method may still be performed. However, manual digging exposes workers to various risks relating to excavations: objects falling into a grave might harm a worker, the sides could collapse or diggers could even fall in. In cemeteries with sandy soil, hand digging still occurs and all allotments are shored to prevent cave-ins and reduce any potential injury and liability.

In order to meet their risk management obligations, modern cemeteries tend to use backhoes and mini excavators for digging, and trucks to remove soil from a site. Some cemeteries remove all the soil to refine it before returning it later to fill a grave. Not all cemeteries operate machinery to the same extent.

Graves are prepared at least an hour before the scheduled arrival of a funeral. The easier the access, the quicker the job. Digging time is approximately one hour for a lawn site and one to two hours for a monumental site. Should any difficult conditions exist, such as rocks, tree roots or very wet soil, then work may commence earlier or be completed the previous day. All areas within reasonable sight of a grave should be neat and tidy with machinery and other vehicles parked away from a burial site.

You may find green matting surrounding a grave for aesthetic purposes, a funeral sign, temporary plaques, tapes and bars or a lowering device. A flower board might cover a grave until the undertakers arrive. There could be shelters erected to protect families in extreme heat or rain and chairs may be provided for elderly persons.

Grave sizes vary throughout cemeteries in Australia often due to space constraints. Graves 1070cm wide x 2440cm long are the norm. The depth of graves differs in all cemeteries, with each State exercising its own regulations. In NSW, 900mm of soil must cover the top of a coffin and where there are multiple interments, the compulsory clearance between coffins is 460mm.

Interment

Normal practice is for coffins to be carried by funeral directors. Although this may seem an easy task, it is in fact not. A coffin needs to be finely balanced by adept people with an understanding of the sometimes considerable weight contained therein and it needs to be lowered correctly. Occasionally family members wish to assist but this is generally deemed an unsafe practice. Some cemeteries allow families to carry a coffin to a gravesite, but few allow families to assist in the lowering procedures. Family pallbearers could easily damage their hands, a coffin might topple to one side or it could even be dropped.

Several cemeteries provide funeral directors with on-site training in coffin handling, from those with no weight to those bearing above normal body weight. Safe techniques for using lowering devices are practised. However, during a funeral, cemetery staff is generally in attendance to assist if necessary. They can often be identified by their ID badges and uniform as they wear protective attire – gloves, safety boots, hats, sunscreen or waterproofs – as necessary.

Traditionally, the lowering of a coffin was done by four pallbearers using straps. Today, in lawn graves, perhaps a more dignified method of approach is the use of an automatic lowering device.

Following interment

A grave is generally filled immediately depending on access, the site and weather conditions. Machinery is frequently used to replace soil on lawn graves, with a final clean up often done manually to leave the site clean. Monumental areas are simply filled, but not top soiled. The grave is mounded ready for a monumental mason. Monuments could be built immediately however the choosing, ordering of materials, availability and supply often takes several months. This task is usually the responsibility of families and stonemasons.

Those are the just the basics. People with different ethnic and religious backgrounds may practice their own traditional burial rites. For instance Jewish communities prefer to back-fill graves themselves. Muslim custom is that “the body must be buried without a coffin to be in contact with the soil to which it must return. Natural decomposition is not to be delayed.” 1

The Chinese are most particular about the orientation of a coffin and prefer to lay sand beneath it, and often won’t leave until the coffin is completely covered. Also, the Chinese place plates of food at the foot of a grave and burn incense, while the Greeks commemorate the deceased with panache. They erect tents, bring in tables, chairs, abundant food and drink and following a burial gather for memorial services on the 9th day, the 40th day, at three months, nine months and then annually to say “God Bless the Soul”. Maori funerals are often accompanied by much singing, playing of guitars and wailing.

Many Australian cemeteries afford family and friends the chance to reminisce and take refreshments at an on-site venue following a funeral.

1 Muslim Burials, by Dr Philip Bachelor, ACCA News, Autumn 2004