Since it opened in 2023, the shed has housed the southern hemisphere\u2019s only cryonics facility. Inside, seven patients are \u201csuspended\u201d head-down in liquid nitrogen at -196C. Four to a flask \u2013 a dewar, as they\u2019re known in the business.<\/p>\n
The shed in Holbrook. Southern Cryonics is one of six such facilities in the world, according to its operators. Photograph: Simon Dallinger\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Tsolakides\u2019 company, Southern Cryonics<\/a>, is selling people \u201ca chance of life extension\u201d.<\/p>\n The gamble costs more than $200,000. Experts say there\u2019s no way it will work.<\/p>\n Cryonics, they explain, remains a \u201cdream\u201d. Any attempted resurrection would be akin to taking a defrosted, and decidedly mushy strawberry, and believing it could be made firm and vibrant again.<\/p>\n But proponents say cryonics offers adventure. And a glimmer of hope of a longer or potentially limitless life.<\/p>\n Tsolakides, the chair of Southern Cryonics, makes no promises. \u201cBasically, you need to have conquered death, cured all diseases and then be able to bring people back from the dead,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n He puts the likelihood of his patients being brought back to life in 250 years\u2019 time at about 10%. That\u2019s more than nothing, he says.<\/p>\n But as with any risky venture, it pays to read the fine print.<\/p>\n A shed and a submarine<\/p>\n Holbrook is small town off the Hume Highway halfway between Melbourne and Sydney. It\u2019s home to the decommissioned submarine HMAS Otway, stranded in a park 250km from the ocean.<\/p>\n Southern Cryonics is one of six such facilities in the world, according to its operators. There are two in the US and one each in Switzerland, China and Russia.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s thought there are about 1,000 people cryogenically frozen worldwide. Tsolakides describes the community as \u201ctight knit\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAlmost nobody\u2019s interested in cryonics,\u201d he tells Guardian Australia. \u201cThe people who we get joining us are people who\u2019ve had a sort of life interest \u2026 but never knew it was available\u201d in Australia.<\/p>\n Southern Cryonics chose Holbrook for its storage facility because of its proximity to Sydney and Melbourne and the fact it\u2019s unlikely to be hit by earthquakes or floods.<\/p>\n The cryonicists need somewhere relatively safe given that patients are frozen indefinitely. They\u2019re in the dewar until humanity develops the technology capable of \u201creviving\u201d them; or, as their contract stipulates, the company goes bust. In that case, their body may be \u201cdisposed of\u201d.<\/p>\n Conveniently, Holbrook was already home to a cattle-breeding association, and hence a delivery destination for the liquid nitrogen needed to freeze bull semen and embryos.<\/p>\n Southern Cryonics has two dewars so far. They\u2019re basically big Thermos bottles.<\/p>\n Inside one are the first four of Tsolakides\u2019 patients to be frozen. In May 2024, a man who died in his 80s was the first to be loaded upside down in his Trivial Pursuit-style quarter-cylinder wedge.<\/p>\n The second dewar has room for one more patient. Being in the shed, looking down into that space, I feel an immense loneliness.<\/p>\n Tsolakides says women are less likely than men to be interested in being frozen. That\u2019s because, he suggests, women don\u2019t like the idea of waking up in a future without family or friends.<\/p>\n \u2018A very strict protocol\u2019<\/p>\n I am the first journalist allowed into the shed since the initial suspension in May 2024.<\/p>\n The shed is unremarkable apart from the two towering dewars \u2013 and a crash-test dummy, fully dressed and lying on the floor. It was used to test the winching mechanism for depositing bodies into the dewars.<\/p>\n Facility manager Philip Rhoades with Southern Cryonics\u2019 crash-test dummy. Photograph: Simon Dallinger\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Jim Davis, from Parkes Liquid Nitrogen, is there to top up the dewars. The metal flasks release plumes of vapour when they\u2019re refilled. They were initially topped up once a month but that\u2019s been increased to fortnightly at the request of two early clients who were worried about supplies running low after their mothers died and were suspended.<\/p>\n Davis also delivers the icy liquefied gas to police dog and cattle breeders, hospitals, engineers and human IVF clinics. \u201cIf they\u2019re freezing it, I\u2019m doing it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Demand is increasing all the time, and supplies must be replenished regularly, Davis says.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t seal liquid nitrogen in a vessel without the container blowing up, meaning it slowly escapes. \u201cIf I sealed one of these tanks, mate, the building wouldn\u2019t be here,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n To give patients the best chance of avoiding cellular destruction, their body undergoes an eight-hour \u201cvitrification\u201d process as soon as possible after death, Southern Cryonics says.<\/p>\n Another of Tsolakides\u2019 companies, CryoPath, arranges a third-party medical perfusionist company to carry out the vitrification.<\/p>\n After someone dies, their body is cooled as quickly as possible \u2013 including by placing ice packs around their head. The corpse is then pumped with antifreeze-like embalming chemicals that turn it into a \u201cglass-like state\u201d, Tsolakides says, hopefully protecting it from the extreme temperatures inside the dewar.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a slow process,\u201d he explains. \u201cYou have to follow a very strict protocol.\u201d<\/p>\n The latest suspension at Southern Cryonics occurred in June after a man in his 90s died. Photograph: Simon Dallinger\/The Guardian<\/p>\n After a body has been \u201cstabilised\u201d \u2013 usually at a funeral home \u2013 it\u2019s transported to Holbrook and stored upside down. But not every patient in the shed has undergone this procedure. Some underwent a \u201cstraight freeze\u201d.<\/p>\n In the Southern Cryonics contract, clients are asked to acknowledge that any known cryonic suspension method will probably result in physical damage to their body, which may be irreversible. The contract notes there will be another fee, yet to be determined, for any future revival.<\/p>\n
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