Supplied: Dean Ridgers
)For Mr Ridgers, it was his 82-year-old mother Elizabeth Weissel, a former nurse — his "entire family" growing up, a role model to his children and avid lover of the outdoors.
He wanted to hold a burial that would represent his mum, a ceremony that reflected the person she was and her way of life.
Together the Ridgers family chose to hold a natural burial, an increasingly popular end-of-life option being embraced by Australian families.
"So to me that was obviously a natural burial … it was very Mum.
"She was the type of person that if she found an ant or a fly she would collect it and let it back outside, which was really beautiful.
"It was nature in front of everything and animals are important, the environment was very important to us, so it was nice to do it in that way."
Supplied: Dean Ridgers
)Elizabeth was the first person to be buried at a new natural burial site at Willowbank in the Ipswich region last year.
Mr Ridgers said instead of walking through a cemetery full of symmetrical graves and cement headstones, the burial was held in a "tea tree forest" among "beautiful trees where plants are growing and birds are fluttering".
"Which is very much part of my belief system and very reflective of Mum's.
"We chose this natural white-wash wicker coffin, there were flowers on top and we were just outside with the birds and the breeze instead of in an indoor funeral like at a church, it was less formal, it was special."
Easier to explain death to kids
Mr Ridgers said a natural burial was also an easier way to introduce the difficult topic of death to children.
"It was really important and powerful to have the kids involved," he said.
"So it was an easier way to explain to the kids what happens in that context."
Supplied: Dean Ridgers
)In Queensland a growing number of councils are opting to offer "green, bush or eco" burials, with some regions like Ipswich and the Gold Coast already embracing the option.
Last week, Sunshine Coast Council announced it hoped to introduce the burials by the end of the year and was looking at possible sites within existing cemeteries.
Fraser Coast Council is also investigating potential sites to offer to its residents.
What is a natural burial?
A natural burial is a resting place generally in a bushland or regenerated area, where no toxic materials are used, including for the coffin, memorial stone or items buried with the body.
"It's an option instead of cremation and it's really a choice that people can make that presents less of a footprint on nature, in terms of that final farewell for a person," said Sunshine Coast Council cemetery services coordinator, Justin Le Page.
"It's a burial typically within a natural area, so it could be a bushland area, free vegetation, and quite often a plant is placed in memory of that person, though there is some option for a communal memorial too.
According to Mr Le Page, the coffins are often shroud, cardboard, wicker or timber and degrade naturally, with the body, into the earth "without any negative consequences to nature".
By Tara Cassidy, ABC Sunshine Coast
)He said, unlike the Canadian model of entirely natural burial cemeteries, Queensland council's provided natural burial sites within or adjacent to standard cemeteries.
"And embalming, that's not necessary to be laid to rest in a council cemetery, so while a person can't be laid to rest at a natural burial area [on the Sunshine Coast] yet, some of those practices can be applied now."
Popular among many cultures
Gillian Hall from Funerals Sunshine Coast, who has been working with Sunshine Coast Council to make eco-burials available in the region, said there were also other reasons people opted for natural burials, including cultural reasons and simply to do something different to a regular funeral.
"Even the interfaith community are very interested in having this sort of option available," she said.
"Because again a lot of their practices relate to how we treat our environment, so I think it's really important for a lot of cultural perspectives as well.
Ms Hall said to date, many families across Queensland were having to bury family members interstate just to be able to do so naturally.
Supplied: Michael Hutchinson Funerals
)She said it was promising to see more Queensland councils embracing the option for its residents.
"So people even have gone and left the state and gone to New South Wales to get options that we don't have here.
"It's been missing for a long time, so this is a really big first step for people, it's pretty exciting."
