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Book Review
| Robert Nicol, This Grave and Burning Question: A Centenary History of Cremation in Australia, Adelaide Cemeteries Authority, Adelaide, 2003. pp. x + 332. $30 paper.
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| For more than 1,000 years in the Christian West, the dead were laid in the earth in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection and the life to come. Now, more than half of those who die are cremated. In less than a century, a revolution has taken place in the way that we dispose of the bodies of the dead. Robert Nicol's detailed history of cremation in Australia tells the story of that revolution. |
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Public debate about the virtue of cremation began in Australia in the 1870s, in parallel with debate in England. In public lectures and periodicals, cremationists extolled the advantages of cremation as a sanitary and cost effective means of disposal. Cremationists told gruesome stories about corpses putrefying in the grave to defeat 'sentiment' in favour of burial. And to respond to the objection that murderers would dispose of the evidence of their crimes by cremation, cremationists proposed rigorous (and cumbersome) procedures for the medical examination of all bodies. These procedures, cremationists said, would also eliminate the fear of premature burial. |
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Cremationists formed societies around Australia to promote cremation to the public and to government. These societies often included doctors as key members, but they also included other members of the social, professional and intellectual elite. Nor were others excluded. Henry Rusden, for example, a key member in Victoria, was an accountant in the Victorian Police Department by day, and radical free-thinker by night. Cremation societies included feminists, theosophists, vegetarians, free-thinkers and spiritualists. Although cremation societies were small, and liable to fail for want of interest, they kept the cause of cremation in the public and political eye. |
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The campaign to establish crematoria was a long one. The first 'modern' cremation in a purpose built public crematorium took place in South Australia in 1903, and it wasn't until a crematorium opened in Sydney in 1925 that the number of bodies cremated began to increase significantly. |
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The main sticking-point was money. Governments in all states were reluctant to commit funds to cremation. Some crematoria were established by governments, typically through non-profit cemetery trusts. Private enterprise played a role too. In New South Wales, the cremationists raised the funds themselves by selling shares in the Cremation Company. Within ten years the company was paying dividends of between five and ten per cent. Cremation is a service that, unlike burial, does not require the long-term maintenance of graves and headstones. Ironically, non-profit cemetery trusts that established crematoria often used the revenue they generated to support the maintenance of old graves under their care. |
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The potential to do away with memorialisation of the dead entirely was obvious from the earliest years of cremation. Henry Rusden, for example, suggested that 'what a man does of good of any kind should be his only monument'. Others apparently agreed with Rusden, and the scattering of ashes has become an increasingly popular way of disposing of 'cremains' (cremated remains). Where memorials are established — in columbaria or garden settings — the style is restrained. This restraint reflects the absence of obvious religious symbolism. Crematoria were designed to be religiously 'neutral' in order to cater to all religions. |
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Nicol recounts the history of the design of a number of crematoria (some of which are striking art deco designs) and richly illustrates these stories. In general, Nicol's book is well illustrated, with satirical cartoons, photographs of early cremations and architectural drawings. At more than 300 nearly A4 pages, Nicol's book records a wealth of detail about cremation in all States, and provides a significant contribution to the history of death in Australia. This level of detail is probably more than many readers will want, but the book is clearly organised and has a detailed index for readers interested in particular matters. |
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Nicol's view is that the success of cremation after World War II and its ready acceptance today has obscured its prolonged gestation period and difficult birth. Nicol's book gives a detailed account of that early period, but only an 'epilogue' to describe the growth and acceptance of cremation after World War II. Nicol has shown how the revolution in disposal practices came about in Australia. Perhaps others will take up where his epilogue leaves off, and show what that revolution meant for the lives of Australians. |
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