THERE are some jobs that sound so interesting when you meet someone in the industry, you can’t help but ask lots of questions.
This is the case with Bernard Kearle who has been a gravedigger at Marburg Trinity Lutheran Cemetery for 50 years.
Ask if people wanting to be cremated affects his line of work and he quips, “that’s my opposition”.
It’s an industry where ‘gallows humour’ is a coping mechanism and a way of processing what can be stress or anxiety producing events.
Rest assured, he does his job respectfully and is mindful families burying loved ones are not as experienced with the death process as he is.
He said people don’t know him as Bernard, his nickname is Smokey like Smokey the bear and to refer to him as that.
Smokey’s career as a gravedigger began when he was 19.
“A bloke I knew who lived across the creek from me was [working as a gravedigger] with his brother who decided to give it away,” he said.
“He said he’d nominate me for the position, and I could work as his offsider.
“That’s how I started.
“Four years later he left the industry and I was put in charge. I have had the job ever since.”
The role is one that needs annual assessment and reappointment.
“Every year I step down, then back up again as I’m reappointed unopposed, it’s been that way for 50 years so I must be doing something right,” he said.
His childhood prepared him for the job. His father looked after a graveyard in Minden.
“I knew exactly what was involved right from start to finish from when I was a kid,” he said.
“I understood it as a job where you can’t take any shortcuts because it’s important everything is done properly.
“There is an undertaker who says when he sees me standing at the gate it’s a relief because he knows things have been done the right way.”
The right way is not just ensuring the grave is dug correctly, there’s the need for reverence, respect and dignity, components to the job that can’t be taught.
Perhaps some of these traits come from the experience of personal grief.
“Burying an infant is the hardest part of the job no matter how old the child was when they passed,” he said.
“I wear two hats in that regards because I lost two sons. One passed away a fortnight after he turned 19 and the other one made it to 23. They both had muscular dystrophy.
“It’s something you have to switch off and treat it as a job, but it’s very hard.”
Switching off would have been harder during the burials of his family members, he dug the graves for each of his two sons, his parents and close relatives.
It was a task he wanted to do but it most certainly hit him hard emotionally.
“I am in charge so if I had someone else do the job, I’d still need to be there supervising,” he said.
“That’s why I just get in there and do the job.
“It was an honour to be able to bury my family.
“I made sure everything was done right, my motto is this, three ways to do things, the right way, the sensible way and my way.”
Not until I’m six foot under, is an expression alluding to what has long been the traditional depth of a grave.
It’s also the approximate size of a traditional coffin.
“Your minimum depth is six foot, if someone wants to be buried on top it needs to be seven foot,” he said.
“That way when it’s reopened within 12 months there is still a foot of dirt above the lid of that coffin.
“After 12 months you can go down to the lid of the coffin if need be but I usually like to leave at least six or eight inches above the lid.
“The actual minimum depth is four foot six because by law, you need a minimum of three foot of soil from the lid of the coffin to ground level.”
The six foot stipulation is for a very good reason.
“If the grave is dug too shallow there’s not enough dirt to hold it down and if there’s a lot of wet weather the coffin becomes a big bubble and it will come up and float,” he said.
“That’s apparently what happened at Warrill Park [Lawn Cemetery] during the 1974 floods but I wasn’t there to witness it.
“We are on top of a hill here so we won’t have that problem.”
Smokey hasn’t kept a tally of how many graves he has dug.
“I suppose I’ve done a little over 500 in the past 50 years, a bit over 10 a year average,” he said.
“I have always worked other jobs too. Gravedigging hasn’t been my only one.
“It’s an important role nonetheless and I’ve made it clear I’ll need time off when I’m needed to dig a hole for a burial.
“I’m always upfront about it.”
He was recently reappointed, not that it came as a surprise.
“I’m never worried, no one else wants to take the job on because it’s hard work,” he said.
“Some people want to sit in an air conditioned office using a computer. In this job you are out in the sun or rain and if you need to dig by hand, that’s what you do.
“That’s just the way it is, it’s an essential service some may say the same as doctors, nurses, firemen and policemen.”