Regional approach to natural burials
Palmerston North is looking to Manawatū to help it solve a decade-long search for a natural burial ground.
The city council’s environmental sustainability committee has asked its staff to work with Manawatū district staff to create the option for natural burial that is already offered in 19 other places.
Parks and logistics group manager Kathy Dever-tod said the option of an eco-burial was available at Kelvin Grove, Ashhurst and Bunnythorpe cemeteries.
In those cases, families could choose an eco-friendly embalming of the body, and the burial could be in an ecofriendly casket or shroud.
A natural burial was different again. It required no embalming of the body, biodegradable caskets or shrouds, and the body was buried in a shallower grave with active soil layers that supported natural decomposition.
There were no headstones or permanent grave markers.
Dever-tod said an area for a natural cemetery had to be properly designated for burials, and was often a separate part of a traditional cemetery developed in a more park-like way.
The city council had surveyed potential sites in Palmerston North from 2010.
A site at Mccraes Bush in Ashhurst, on the lower terraces next to the Pohangina River, was considered as it had ideal soil types.
The proposal drew opposition from River Rd residents, and concerns about potential flood risks, and was abandoned.
Although a city council bylaw allows for natural burials, the soil types at the Kelvin Grove Cemetery were unsuitable, and the process would have needed compost brought in for the graves, which was not in line with the philosophy of natural burials.
Long-time advocate, Te Hā O Hine Ahu One, the Palmerston North Women’s Health Collective, made a submission to the council in 2020 to revive the investigations.
Dever-tod said the Manawatū council would be considering possibilities, and was assessing soil types at the Sanson and Feilding cemeteries to find out whether they were suitable.
The district was keen to work with neighbours to find out whether a regional option would work.
Mayor Grant Smith said calls for a natural burial cemetery had been on the agenda for several years, and it would be good to make progress and offer an option that was important to some people.
He said the demand was likely to be low, and working collaboratively with neighbours was likely to achieve the best outcome for ratepayers.