Shire of Boddington announces cemeteries to go digital using Aussie tech company’s online mapping tool

The Shire of Boddington has announced that visitors to the Marradong, Quindanning and Boddington Cemeteries will soon be able to use an online tool to help guide them to the final resting places of their loved ones. The software is the product of Australian tech start-up Chronicle and company CEO Matthew Borowski said that the program would provide the community with features beyond navigation. “The Shire will be able to make available the history of people through Chronicle and give the community an opportunity to create online obituaries for family members to connect to their physical resting places,” he said. “Using waypoint technology people will be able to navigate cemeteries and walk directly to graves where they can access a story on their phone in the physical presence of a loved one, something that is really special.” The innovative spark for Chronicle came to Mr Borowski after he personally experienced the weighty emotional challenge of trying to locate the grave of a friend. The Australian company has since mapped around 300 cemeteries and Mr Borowski said that the digitisation process usually took around three months from commencement to community delivery. “We’ve mapped around 200 cemeteries in Australia and 100 in the US,” Mr Borowski said. “The record-keeping of each cemetery is unique, typically they will have a mixture of old books that they will be using to store data alongside makeshift software and maps. “We take all of that and collate the best and most accurate version to put online. “Using a drone, we take aerial pictures of the cemetery and then our job is to match those physical locations with the information that we’ve received.” Mr Borowski said cemetery operations underwent a significant technological upheaval in the wake of COVID-19. “We couldn’t travel and visit cemeteries or attend funeral services,” he said. “There was a lot happening in the funeral industry and that bought the need for innovation and doing things differently to people’s attention resulting in things like video streaming funeral services and creating online memorials.” Chronicle recently received an honourable mention for innovation from the US International Cemetery and Funeral Association. “We’re the first Australian company to achieve that recognition in 23 years,” Mr Borowski said. “It’s a wonderful movement to be a part of, to see all of this information going online that allows people to visit their loved ones.”