Inside Australia's largest incinerator

The burning of the body in a crematorium takes place in a strict process to ensure that the ash is free of metal impurities.

According to statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, an average of 159,000 people die each year in this country. Among them, 70% of people living in cities choose cremation and this figure accounts for about 56% for rural and suburban areas.

The common cremation process is a mystery to the public. However, for those who work in the cremation industry, they face this process many times a day.

David Bennett is a cremation executive at the Crematorium and Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens and Crematorium, the second oldest crematory in Australia, located in New South Wales state. Bennett worked here for three years and every day he went to work at 6 am."We have done a total of 357,000 cremations since our founding in 1933 so far," News.com.au quoted Bennett.

"Monday is usually quite a quiet day in crematoria. Only about 10 bodies are brought here. However, this number can reach 30 or more on Friday," Bennett said. Most families want to carry out cremation for their loved ones on weekends instead of the beginning of the week. The staff at the crematorium always tried to follow the registration order as well as meet the special requirements from the family.

Once the body is brought to the crematorium in coffins with metal utensils, the staff will take metal objects from the coffin and send them to families with ashes. This ensures that there is no mixing between the body and the metal objects.

Bennett said the bodies brought to the crematorium were all listed on a sheet of paper to ensure the correct number of people. Employees also check and mark the amount of reduction on sheets of paper every time the body is put into the oven. The incinerators are also monitored continuously by the camera.

Normally, there are three crematoriums set side by side. Each kiln is operated by a handheld control device and equipped with a computer monitor to monitor temperature, smoke, gas and suction. According to Bennett, computers do everything and can be accessed and remote controlled by Melbourne's crematorium manufacturer.

The temperature in the crematorium should be maintained at 800-1,000 degrees Celsius. (Photo: News.com.au).

The temperature in the crematorium should be maintained between 800 and 1000 degrees C before opening the chamber door to bring another body into. The door here is about 949mm tall and about 1,158mm wide. This is the size of Australia's largest crematorium door.

A tray moves the coffin on the conveyor belt, and the foot is always the first to enter the chamber. With a standard-sized body, it takes about 1.5 hours to complete the cremation. Big body takes 4.5 hours. According to Bennett, obese bodies will be carefully monitored during cremation.

The risks of cremation as well as prolonged cremation will be monitored remotely by Melbourne cremator manufacturers.

The rest, mostly calcified bones, fall into a narrow funnel and into the last hole of the crematorium. After that, they were scraped into ash. The ashes, along with the corresponding nameplate, are then taken to the preparation room and placed on a fan to cool them. A processor then crushes the calcified bones into dust.

A container of ash for an average weight of 4-6 kg depends on the person's body size at the time of cremation.

The ash boxes are labeled with unique numbers in front and inside. Hundreds of ashboxes will be stored in a safe room. Some will be taken by families immediately after that day or a few days, others may be there even up to 20 years. The crematorium did not throw anyone's ash until a member of the family came to collect it.

The large corner in the room was prepared with a black box containing metal objects that could not participate in the cremation process. These metal items are sold to recyclers. The money sold will be donated to various charities.

In the left corner of the three crematoriums is where families can see their loved ones being brought into the chamber. Only a glass window separates them. Bennett said many Hindus lay on the floor and prayed when their loved ones were cremated.

Children are often cremated with their favorite toys, but not anything can be brought in.

Ana Kingi, the manager of the Cremation Furnace and the Northern Suburbs Memorial Garden, said customers can fulfill cultural requirements at all times. Kingi said that the trend of cremation instead of burial is increasing because of cost effectiveness, advantages of energy and space.