Dead End Coffee Club

14/10/2026

We have talked at a recent coffee club meeting about natural and green burials. For those who may be interested, this online event is coming up on 20 October. It costs $5 for NDAN members or $20 for non-members. Booking link through the FB page.

Have you booked yet?

Six Feet Greener: Real stories of choosing natural burial, from the ground up.
Why do people choose a natural burial — and what is it really like? Across Australia, more families are choosing natural burial over conventional options. But why? What actually happens at a natural burial? How do people feel during and after the experience? And, perhaps most importantly — would they choose it again?

In this session, we explore the real reasons people step toward a simpler, more connected way of laying their person to rest.

Fiona Mccuaig (Walawaani Way, NSW) and Heidi Grieg (Yacca Creeks Memorial Reserve, SA) are managers and operators of Natural and Conservation Burial Grounds that align with NDAN’s National Standards of Natural Burial, and Natural Burial Code of Conduct. Together, they bring deep practical experience, community stories, and a shared commitment to reshaping how Australians think about death, care, and the land we return to.

Listen to real experiences from those at the frontier of a cultural shift — one that is changing how we bury, how we grieve, and how we imagine our own final place in the world.

Fiona McCuaig has volunteered and worked for a number of marine conservation and environmental organisations throughout her property career. She has a Bachelor of Economics from Sydney University and a Master of Property at UTS.
After moving down from Sydney to the South Coast of NSW in 2016 she started the journey of establishing Australia’s first 100% natural and conservation burial ground – inspired by a documentary called Will for Woods where an Australian documentary maker called Amy Browne followed a man in America who was dying of cancer and his pursuit of finding a natural burial ground. Fiona says “It seemed like the best way to protect habitat for wildlife and also provide a beautiful place to visit loved ones, a gift to the planet.”

Heidi Grieg has worn many hats in her working life: nurse, Auslan interpreter, teacher, and counsellor for rural youth. Tired of the endless treadmill of outsourcing services to the mainland, Heidi saw a deep need to bring death care back into the community’s embrace – and founded KI Doula Services in response to the existential crisis that was all around her. After further study with Griffith University, and intensive training as an end-of-doula and holistic funeral director, Heidi now works closely with the palliative care team at the Kangaroo Island Community Health Service, specialising in home death care and family lead funerals on private land in SA. In response to community demand, she quietly manages a private conservation burial ground on the remote western end of Kangaroo Island and is thrilled to be involved in NDAN, an organisation she sees are clearly leading the change in Australia.

Booking link in comments below.

DATE - Tuesday 20-October 2026, 6.30PM - 8.30PM AEDT

14/10/2026

Beautiful funeral rituals.

Late last year, we shared a blog post written by Joh Fairley about the power of creative ritual in funeral rites with our latest post.

"When my brother Jimi died suddenly in 2010, my family chose to create a personalised funeral that honoured his life in a deeply meaningful way. Rather than following a traditional format, we embraced creative choices that reflected his personality, friendships, and values."

Read more via the link below - https://www.ahfa.org.au/post/paper-boats-and-silver-ribbons

14/10/2026

Did you know about this special place?

Recently I visited the Dementia Friendly Forest and Sensory Trail at Woowookarung Regional Park. It had been on my bucket list for a while. A very special place.
Walking the trail with no one else around was beautiful. It filled my senses and reminded me of the value of taking a few quiet moments for yourself to recharge, something that’s sometimes hard to do as a carer.
The ‘window’ on the forest here in this photo is one of the most beautiful features of the trail.
For me, it was about experiencing life, and the forest, from a different perspective.
Sometimes, when you’re caring for someone living with dementia, it’s worth seeing things from a fresh viewpoint. A dementia doula can help you do that too.
I offer compassionate, practical dementia guidance through a wider lens, helping you see the whole picture and supporting the whole family.
If you’d like to talk about how I can support your family, contact me for a free meet-and-greet call via my website https://lavendersage.com.au/

14/10/2026

This podcast may be of interest.

NEW EPISODE

What’s the episode about?

In this episode, hear Dr Jane McCarthy on grief, bereavement, family relationships, relationality, children, young people and death, decolonising death studies, climate emergency and more.

Who is Jane?

Jane McCarthy is an English sociologist who has worked for many decades across various disciplines to focus on ‘family’, childhood, and relationality. In the last 25 years, since the death of her husband when their daughter was aged 5, she has built on this earlier work to explore death and its continuing aftermath in the everyday relational lives of the living, alongside ‘family troubles’ more broadly.

Since her ‘retirement’ in 2015, as an Honorary Associate at The Open University she has been able to extend this work to initiate an Open Societal Challenge on Existential Dis/Connections. This collaborative interdisciplinary hub seeks a decolonising lens to explore how existential threats are structurally shaped, as well as personally experienced and understood, in the era of modernity/coloniality, with its many forms of disconnect, including the ‘Othering’ of racialised capitalism.

07/10/2026

Ten years ago, our founder Andrew Denton stood at the National Press Club and promised to “light a fire so big no politician could ignore it”. That speech launched Go Gentle Australia and a national campaign for voluntary assisted dying (VAD). Now, there are laws passed in every state and territory.
Tomorrow, Andrew will address the National Press Club again, reflecting on this extraordinary achievement. But there are still barriers to VAD for terminally ill people which need to be dismantled.
And he will look ahead to VAD in the next decade: What needs to change. And what changes, already happening, we need to be ready for?
📺 Tune in live with ABC iView tomorrow from 12.30pm.

05/10/2026

Communal graves for “people without means”. Warning: some may find this story distressing.

Exclusive: Authorities are failing to notify family, friends and outreach workers before burying strangers in shared plots, a Guardian Australia investigation reveals

04/10/2026

Another use for recycled pallets…?

03/10/2026

You can read part of this article before a paywall kicks in, but the subject of grief attacks is very interesting.

A few years ago, psychologist Sherman Lee experienced a "grief attack". When he set out to study them, he discovered just how powerful and all-consuming grief can be

30/09/2026

Our guest speaker cannot attend today but will be with us next month 🤍