{"id":777960,"date":"2026-07-04T06:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T06:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/777960\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T06:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T06:09:15","slug":"human-composting-tree-burial-how-aussies-are-changing-funerals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/777960\/","title":{"rendered":"Human composting, tree burial: How Aussies are changing funerals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pyramids, mausoleums, cenotaphs, headstones – human beings have been experimenting with ways to commemorate their dead<\/a> loved ones since before the dawn of history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, a growing group of advocates are pushing for an option that\u2019s both new and perhaps, in some ways, the oldest of all.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As costs for a traditional funeral increase, people are searching for other ways to say goodbye to loved ones.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

Sydney<\/a> MP Alex Greenwich introduced a bill to NSW parliament last week calling for the legalisation of \u201cnatural organic reduction\u201d, also known as human composting.<\/p>\n

In short, human cadavers become dirt.<\/p>\n

Not just any dirt of course – Greenwich says the \u201ccontrolled process\u201d involved in the procedure accelerates natural decomposition to result in \u201caround 110 kilograms of nutrient rich safe compost\u201d.<\/p>\n

Advocates like Earthly Legacy say the process prevents one tonne of carbon emissions<\/a> per body.<\/p>\n

The compost could then hypothetically be donated to environmental regeneration projects, or used to plant a memorial tree or garden.<\/p>\n

And as well as being environmentally friendly – it\u2019s relatively cheap.<\/p>\n

Totting up costs when it comes to saying farewell to a loved one can feel vulgar, but it\u2019s a stark reality that funeral and burial costs are increasing around the country.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s MoneySmart website says families can expect to fork out up to about $20,000, with the cost varying, sometimes sharply upward, depending on things like cemetery fees and other funeral options.<\/p>\n

Human composting is not yet legal in any Australian jurisdiction, but is available to people in parts of the US and Europe.<\/p>\n

Australian Cemeteries and Crematoria Association chief executive Ben Kelly said the association supported \u201cexploring\u201d the idea of human composting – but said laws governing the process had to be consistent nationally.<\/p>\n

\"NSW<\/p>\n

Sydney MP Alex Greenwich has put forward a bill to legalise human composting.\u00a0Dominic Lorrimer<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an emerging practice that deserves careful consideration, not a knee-jerk reaction,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny future introduction should be underpinned by clear legislation, strong consumer protections and consistent regulatory frameworks across all Australian states and territories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly said ACCA and Funerals Australia were willing to work with governments to shape \u201cpractical, evidence-based regulation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur priority is ensuring that any new end-of-life option is introduced safely, ethically and with the confidence of both industry and the community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A tree of life?<\/p>\n

Growing calls for human composting isn\u2019t the only sign Australia\u2019s funeral cultures are changing, as Living Legacy Forest founder Warren Roberts knows all too well.<\/p>\n

Living Legacy Forest offers people the chance to have their cremated ashes mixed with the soil to nourish a long-lasting tree that receives perpetual care in a protected natural landscape.<\/p>\n

The trees receive a plaque and can even be designated a family memorial, with successive generations continuing to add their ashes as well.<\/p>\n

Roberts was inspired to start the business after a friend lost their life, plunging him into grief – too frozen by loss to even shed tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrief is like playing one note, over and over,\u201d he told nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Living Legacy Forest’s Blue Mountains memorial forest is filled with Wollemi pines.\u00a0Bundit Minramun<\/p>\n

And then, one day while walking in the bush, he said, something changed.<\/p>\n

The trees and flowers \u201cgave me the notes back\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cried for the first time then, but I felt more alive than I ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Epiphany aside, Roberts admitted \u201ceverybody thought I was mad\u201d when he launched the business, which now has sites in multiple states around Australia.<\/p>\n

But that was then.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last few years, we\u2019ve planted over 3000 trees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really taken off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberts said there was a semi-spiritual angle to it, noting that in Q&A sessions he\u2019d conducted with rooms full of people, 90 per cent said they were in favour of \u201cbecoming\u201d a tree.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Egypt’s pyramids are surely some of the largest funerary monuments in the world.\u00a0Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cFundamentally, it\u2019s about changing the way we are remembered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunerals are the only thing that hasn\u2019t changed since the Dark Ages.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he had noticed a change in how people related to memorials and legacy, with a link to growing environmental awareness, as people sought to address or restore their relationship to the natural world.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t want to be remembered as a grave,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a grave, you remember absence, death, loss. Trying to remember somebody\u2019s life by a grave is like trying to remember a story by the full stop at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not knocking cemeteries – Roberts said they were \u201cbeautiful places\u201d, and that he had relatives and loved ones who had been interred.<\/p>\n

But he said there was a \u201cprofound change\u201d under way.<\/p>\n

A memorial tree is cheaper than a traditional funeral, with Roberts estimating an upper-level cost of perhaps half the average funeral and burial.<\/p>\n

Living Legacy Forest has sites in or around Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Adelaide, with Brisbane the next stop.<\/p>\n

The forests vary depending on the site and the partnerships that go into it.<\/p>\n

The Adelaide site is a flower garden, while Perth\u2019s is filled with native species with the aim to make the forest a habitable hub for the endangered mainland quokka.<\/p>\n

The Sydney hub, a secluded grove in the Blue Mountains, is dedicated to the native Wollemi pine, while in Melbourne, 20 \u201cof the most beautiful\u201d species of tree make for a colourful resting place, with cherry blossoms and jacarandas blooming during the year.<\/p>\n

Roberts is confident demand for a different way to say goodbye will keep growing.<\/p>\n

As for human composting, he said Living Legacy Forest would provide that option in jurisdictions where it becomes legal from 2030 onward, but he\u2019s unsure why people would opt for an industrialised option.<\/p>\n

\u201cMother Nature has been composting for free forever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen human bodies have biodegraded naturally on this earth for thousands of years, it raises the question of why we would need energy-intensive machinery to replicate a process nature already does.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pyramids, mausoleums, cenotaphs, headstones – human beings have been experimenting with ways to commemorate their dead loved ones…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-777960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}