A controversial new crematorium will celebrate its opening in Unanderra on Saturday, with the operators saying the event will be the realisation of a 72-year-old family dream.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The new Mountain View Crematoria is operated by the Parsons family, and is touted as having one of the most modern and efficient cremators in the southern hemisphere.
Cremations have been happening at the Waverley Road facility since January 2018, which Parsons Funerals director Alan Parsons said was the culmination of three generations of his family’s work.
The idea for the funeral business to own a cremator was first raised by Alf Parsons when he established the Illawarra Crematorium company in 1946, the company says.
When the new Unanderra crematorium was proposed at its current site last year, business owners in the surrounding industrial estate raised fears about toxic fallout.
For instance, at a public hearing at Wollongong City Council neighbouring business owner Athol Quinsey – who runs a playground building company – said he worried for the health of his workers if the crematorium was installed.
“We don’t wish to arrive at a situation where we’re filling out our work day preparing for the fallout of human remains, be it smell or human fat residue,” he said.
“I understand this is a common experience for neighbours of existing crematoriums. If we can smell it, feel it or see it, then we reject it.”
Likewise, owners of a food processing plant worried about mercury poisoning.
However, Parsons assured assessors and business owners that all emissions would be kept at low levels – which would be lower than a bus depot already in operation nearby.
They will monitored according to government standards.
In the lead up to the company’s opening day, Mr Parsons reiterated that the cremator unit installed in the new facility complied with “the world’s most stringent anti-pollution requirements”.
“We chose to invest in the latest advances in crematoriums to give us the very best, most efficient technologies,” he said.
“This investment brings world class environmental performance with ultra low emissions compared to other comparable facilities.”
In an effort to cater for a “ageing, taller and heavier population” the cremator also has the “largest opening of any unit in Australia”.
Families will be able to shun the traditional memorial garden, if they choose, with Parsons allowing them to scatter their loved ones’ ashes, display them in an urn or place them in a garden plot.
According to the state’s Cemeteries and Crematoria NSW (CCNSW) agency, the Illawarra’s cremation rate – of 74.9 per cent – is the third highest in the state.