Southern Cryonics human freezing facility begins construction at Holbrook

Southern Cryonics is the only organisation of its kind in Australia, and one of few across the globe, where humans can opt to have their bodies frozen, or 'suspended', upon death in the hopes of being revived into a future of immortality.

Founding member Peter Tsolakides has been working to get the facility up and running since about 2010, growing from 10 initial investors to the now close to 30 members.

Mr Tsolakides is one man in line to have his own body suspended after his death.

"I personally came to the conclusion that I wanted this many years ago when I was much younger, I read the book The Prospect of Immortality by Robert Ettinger and the idea seemed very reasonable to me," he said.

"I thought I'd put the idea to the side because I assumed that by the time I got to my old age, I would be able to walk down the street and have my body suspended anywhere but here I am and that isn't the case yet.

Mr Tsolakides got the idea to work on his own way of providing the service to himself and others interested.

"I have enough things to do to live five, six or seven lifetimes. I want to live and do a lot of things, I have so many ideas and a big interest in science, and I want to see all of these developments in science and see what the answers to my questions are," he said.

"There's a lot of reasons why I and many others want this, it will be like being the frontier of a new land, you have a young body, a young mind, and no worry of disease, it's a whole new future."

"It is very much a relief to see Southern Cryonics finally begin construction given the skeptics around," Mr Tsolakides said.

The keen futurist said skeptics of the idea were to be expected, given the unknown nature of the future.

"I have no problem with skeptics, we aren't saying this is a guaranteed solution and anyone with scientific reasons against the process we do listen to and take into account," he said.

"But I am an optimistic person and that tends to be the demographic of those interested in cryonics, alongside the 80-90 per cent male focus.

"We just want to see the future."

Their following is growing, with more members opting to sign up to have their bodies suspended at death.

The close off for people wishing to get on the list is March 31, but immortality comes at a cost of $50,000 per person.

Southern Cryonics is hoping to have stage one of their facility completed and up and running by early 2021, with the stage two 'front office' section to come at a later date.

Mr Tsolakides the organisation worked closely with the Department of Health and other key stakeholders to ensure all processes were above board and on track.

"Despite the commitment to working with legitimate departments though, it is always a bit touchy because it is an entirely new concept with risks and that scares people," he said.

Many have raised concerns over the electricity used to keep services running at Southern Cryonics, according to Mr Tsolakides.

"No electricity will actually be needed for this, it's like a vacuum cylinder with liquid nitrogen, so while those cylinders do need to be topped up occasionally, electricity doesn't really pose a major threat," he said.

"The main aspect is being able to have the liquid nitrogen available, which comes into our choice of Holbrook as a location - it is right between Sydney and Melbourne with high populations, it has access via air through Albury Woodonga, and it is by the Hume Highway which has good transport capabilities."

In terms of day-to-day running, Mr Tsolakides said there will be very little involved.

"To be quite honest, the facility is very simple," he said.

"The most difficult part is getting to a patient in time soon enough after they die to lower their temperature and start the suspension process."

No everyone will be a viable candidate for suspension, according to Mr Tsolakides.

"The main problem is major brain damages, if there's anything in the body that you need to preserve - it's the brain," he said.

"The brain is what you need most, everything else can be replaced, so somebody has to have some level of cognitive ability to succeed with this."

The day human bodies can be revived remains an unknown, but Mr Tsolakides has a prediction that may be sooner than most thought.

"Immortality as a certain for human existence will have to come first before these people are able to be revived, but we are probably looking at that as a possibility in 100 years time," he said.