Fifteen years ago this month, American writer Hunter S Thompson was bid farewell in a rather unusual manner.
"With a deafening boom, the ashes of Hunter S. Thompson were blown into the sky from a 153-foot (47-meter) tower as relatives and a star-studded crowd bid an irreverent farewell to the founder of "gonzo journalism."
As the ashes erupted from the tower's pinnacle, red, white, blue and green fireworks lit up the sky late Saturday over Thompson's home for nearly 10 minutes as the crowd cheered. The actual blasts with the ashes took about 30 seconds.
"I'll always remember where I was when Hunter was blown into the heavens," Thompson's neighbor Rita Sherman said. The 15-story tower, shrouded by tarps for days, was modeled after Thompson's logo: a clenched fist, made symmetrical with two thumbs, rising from the hilt of a dagger. It was built between his home and a tree-covered canyon wall, not far from a tent filled with merrymakers " (Source).
Further details regarding the original structure in Aspen, Colorado, USA
There would be many wonderful locations for a funeral cannon tower in the Whitsundays, but how about 20°16'28.6"S 148°44'28.8"E ? (subject to Council and Body Corporate approval).
And now close your eyes and imagine such a tower constructed for use as the launching pad for Whitsunday funerals with a difference. At dawn a canon atop that tower is fired and the deceased's ashes are shot eastwards towards Hamilton Island, a distance of some 24 kms. Hang on!
The concept is not entirely new and some alternatives are already available in the marketplace, examples of which include this, this, and this.
And perhaps a tavern. Mourners need to eat as well, you know.
Then again, why not some writer's cabins too? And on that note I might mention that, until 2018 when the founder Gloria Burley sadly passed away, there was an annual Whitsunday Writers Festival
