After a monumental 10 years of fundraising, the town of Nimbin in New South Wales has just taken possession of a special cooling plate to preserve bodies in the days following death.
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Resident Saskia Kouwenberg helped facilitate the import and couldn't be more excited to see its first use.
"It's the craziest thing, I'm so excited for it to be used, but of course to be excited around death and dying, it's like they can't go together," Ms Kouwenberg said.
"I'm so excited that people don't need to bring … [those] who have died to an impersonal place, that they can stay at home."
The Dutch national joined the effort to bring the cooling plate to her community after the death of her mother.
"I was back in the Netherlands in 2015 when my mother died and she was on a cooling plate and we had such a good experience with it," Ms Kouwenberg said.
Ms Kouwenberg came home and found her local neighbourhood centre had been trying to get such a device.
The plate costs about $5,000 and is manufactured only in the Netherlands.
But soaring freight costs and a world in COVID lockdown brought the Nimbin effort to a grinding halt.
Ms Kouwenberg stepped in to smooth the way with her Dutch speaking skills, and connected with a group of other Australians who were also trying to import cooling plates.
Through their combined efforts, the many technical, financial and transport obstacles were overcome.
"We always wanted at least five to import to Australia and preferably 10 or 15, because it would be a bit cheaper," she said.
"But every time it came to shipping, something happened, or they couldn't even find anybody to transport it [because] the plates were filled with gas and they were not allowed to fly."
Ms Kouwenberg overcame all these obstacles to get the plate to her community.
Fulfilling a wish for a home death
The cooling plate is available at the Nimbin Neighbourhood Centre and is a welcome addition for residents.
The centre's Nat Meyer said the heat of a Nimbin summer was not easy for those who wanted to keep their loved one home in the hours and days after a death.
"At the moment people are forced to use things like bags of ice or those blue cooler bricks but you have to have a big freezer to have enough of that on hand to keep the body in a good condition," she said.
The cooling plate, which can go as low as minus 17 degrees Celsius, slides under the body to keep it cool.
It consists of a cooling plate and compressor, and can be carried by one or two people.
The Nimbin Death and Beyond group toiled for 10 years to import the after-death cooling system.
Ms Meyer said the Nimbin community was fiercely independent and fond of the DIY pathway.
"People increasingly want to have power over that home death space, similar to home birth, and it was identified that a cooling plate could help with that," she said.
"It comes with instructions and helpful hints about washing and dressing your loved one after they have passed away.
"It's about empowerment and enabling people to achieve their wish to stay at home."
Doing death differently
Mimi Zenzmaier, an "end of life doula" who works with Sacred Earth funerals, is the person who takes your hand (and that of your family) and guides you gently towards your end.
She is part of a group of end-of-life carers, also known as "death doulas", revealing a growing trend of Australians who are doing death differently.
For many, that involves keeping the body of a loved one at home, up to five days legally, to have time to come to terms with the death.
"There is always shock that happens after someone's death, no matter how prepared we are or how expected it is," Ms Zenzmaier said.
"The time where we can be with our 'person' in an unhurried way allows the psyche to catch up with the reality of what's happened."
Ms Zenzmaier has observed that was when a family came to a realisation.
"An inner peace [of realising] this is just the body now of my loved one and it's fine for this body to go back into the embrace of the Earth, in whatever form, burial or cremation."
"Rather than a jolting experience that contributes to PTSD, certainly after a shocking death or an unexpected death, this circumnavigates that and allows natural grieving to take place."
Death-avoidant culture
Ms Zenzmaier hopes to change how people think about death.
One of the ways she does this is through her "death over dinner" parties, which are far from a Last Supper.
"We do live in a death-avoidant culture and so it's not a comfortable thing for us to talk about," she said.
"We have a table of eight or 10 people, enjoy a sumptuous meal, and I guide people into discussing their end-of-life wishes in an open and joyful situation."
For Ms Zenzmaier, death is not the end of a relationship, merely a transformation.
"We continue to carry people with us and there is a lot of comfort in that conversation," she said.
