A GROUP of upstanding Western District citizens are taking burials to new depths.

Turning their backs on convention, they plan to bury people upright in graves.

The "no frills" service offers interment in a three-metre deep hole in the new Kurweeton Road Cemetery near Mt Elephant for $2750.

Trading under the name of Upright Burials, the business' operators claim the burial is "simple, natural and economical".

And it is environmentally friendly, with bodies buried in biodegradable bags made from wheat starch.

There are no gravestones or other markers on top of each grave, just natural pasture grazed by sheep.

Relatives can put a memorial plaque on a wall at the entrance to the 4ha cemetery run by the Darlington Cemetery Trust and the location of each body is marked on a grid reference.

Upright Burials is the brainchild of former Glenormiston Agriculture College lecturer George Lines.

Mr Lines, now 81, floated the idea of burying people upright as a way for farmers to earn extra income, without decreasing their arable farming area.

"Farming over buried bodies was one way farmers could diversify from agriculture to make income," Mr Lines said.

Upright Burials managing director and Camperdown farmer Tony Dupleix said the business hoped to capitalise on the Melbourne market.

A local contractor had been engaged to dig the vertical holes using a large auger.

Mr Dupleix designed and had built a "catafalque" for lowering bodies into the grave.

He said certain grave holes could not be pre-booked: it was first come, first served.

"George (Lines) wanted Hole No. 1, so I politely told him he had better get a wriggle on then," he said.