Boyd has made a considerable effort to keep abreast of developments in aspects of burials, cremation and cemetery planning. As often as possible he has visited with international and Australian colleagues and cemetery operators and discussed various issues, examined sites, attended burials and exhumations. Further work from these visits has extended into testing soil samples from exhumation sites.

2000

With the financial support of 9 members of the Australian Cemetery Industry, Boyd visited Brazil in August, 2000. The trip had two purposes: (1) to further present his research findings for the consideration of the international geoscience community, and (2) to review previously published Brazilian research concerning possible cemetery effects on groundwater. In Rio de Janeiro at the 31st International Geological Congress he delivered a keynote paper; then journeyed to Sao Paulo where he met the Brazilian researchers and toured the cemeteries that they had, and are continuing to study, and he also presented a lecture at the University of Sao Paulo's Institute of Geosciences.

The time in Brazil was particularly successful for enabling review and acceptance of his research and for developing his firm convictions on the differences between published Brazilian studies and just about everyone else in the World who has considered cemeteries.

In early September, 2000, Boyd commenced study leave granted by UTS and as part of his program toured in the USA and the UK in connection with his research and teaching duties. He gave an invited address to the annual conference of the Institute of Burial and Cremation Authorities, UK. This was followed by invited lectures about his research to faculty and students at the Universities of East Anglia and Sheffield. On all these occasions the message was the same as given to the Australian Industry:- there are certain geoscientific fundamentals for establishing and operating cemeteries, these need to be implemented in order to bring cemetery operations to a level of World's best practice (see below).

The sites and visits in the UK were particularly relevant. Boyd had the chance to investigate woodland burial practices, some advances in excavation techniques, the legal framework and issues of re-use, to visit a cemetery investigated by the British Geological Survey, and the rare honour to observe the mass exhumation of a Victorian age church graveyard and crypt system where stacked lead coffins were recovered.

2004

Boyd was again granted study leave by UTS in the second half of 2004. As part of his involvement in studies within the Medical Geology field and continuing research on cemeteries, he visited the USA and Germany in September – October. He was invited to present a special lecture to faculty and senior students at Yale University (North Haven, CT) wherein he outlined his Australian cemetery research and reinforced the concepts of geoscientific understanding in the development and planning for cemetery sites.

In Germany he met with researcher colleagues in Stuttgart and Hannover and metropolitan health officials in the Hannover district. These visits will lead to continued collaboration on various grave re-use issues confronting many German municipalities. He was accorded a special honour of witnessing the exhumation of 7 soldiers (variously from the 2 World Wars) in Harsum Cemetery (Hildersheim) and their re-interment in a ‘lift a deepen’ process typical of German grave re-use practices: (record in German cemetery newsletter).  It was interesting to note the considerable variation in relative decay of articles of clothing, coffin wood and bone even within a small cemetery area.

In Hamburg, Boyd visited the Ohlsdorf Cemetery, the largest in Europe and still operational but dating from the 1870s. This magnificent, garden cemetery is significant because in the irrigation wells used for the gardens in the late 1880s through to 1903 the first systematic sampling of cemetery groundwaters was undertaken. The early chemical and microbial testing was clearly not as comprehensive as today’s – but in those times no influence of human decomposition was detected.

Guidelines for Cemetery Practices

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