OUR article last week about Upright Burials raised more than a few eyebrows.
So it is probably fitting that Back Paddock gives readers a follow-up.
A lot of work goes into setting up any new and novel business, and probably even more so when it comes to burying the dead.
As farmers readily know, everything can be good in theory but you need practice or trial runs to ensure a new system will work.
It was no different for Upright Burials, particularly in testing its biodegradable body bags, the refrigerated holding centre in Brooklyn, the catafalque and how well a body could be lowered into the cemetery hole.
Upright Burials managing director Tony Dupleix said they needed a corpse.
"You couldn't open a new business without trying everything out," he said.
That's where Cecil the ram came in.
Cecil was on his last leg, according to Tony.
"He had a gammy leg and had served his usefulness in the paddock," he said. "But Cecil had already had a good life servicing the flock."
So Cecil sacrificed himself and made contribution to the burial business, although he didn't get to see it.
He got a trip to Melbourne to be frozen.
He was in and out of various body bags, in and out of graves, temperature probed, transported back to Camperdown in the new refrigerated transfer van, tested the new internment equipment and finally laid to rest upright in a hole in one of Tony's paddocks.
In fact, it could be said that Cecil got treated better and with greater respect than any of his peers, all for the betterment of mankind.
"And he thought his first life was busy," Tony joked.
