Useful Funeral Information

You may like to choose a favourite piece of clothing for your loved one to be dressed in. The deceased can wear their own clothes, gown or a breasting (which is a head-to-toe dignity cover.) Your loved one’s hair and makeup will be done. Jewellery such as wedding and engagements rings can be placed on the deceased as well as rosary beads and other jewellery.

Due to public health regulations, people carrying some infectious diseases are not able to be viewed. We work with the family to manage each situation on a case-by-case basis.

Gilgandra Funerals & Monuments is here to ensure every detail is attended to as your family has requested. Our role is to guide the family through the arrangements in a caring and understanding manner. You can speak with us at our office or in your home, wherever you feel most comfortable. Specifically, the duties of a funeral director are to: 

• Meet with and discuss the many aspects of the funeral with the family, setting out the various choices available and the costs involved.
• Once the funeral arrangements are set, liaise with various organisations which may include clergy, cemetery, crematorium, hospital, doctor and service organisations to confirm arrangements. 
• Arrange to collect the deceased from the place of death and prepare for viewing, place death and funeral notices in local and metropolitan newspapers, organise any family floral tributes, conduct the funeral on the day and time decided and finalise the necessary paperwork to ensure all legal requirements are met.

The family has absolute choice with certain exceptions. In the case of a coronial investigation, some murder cases may only be given permission for a funeral by burial only. Our funeral directors can provide options to a family, but it is the family’s right to choose whatever they wish providing necessary legal requirements are met.

A funeral director that has access to a mortuary and complies with the appropriate health regulations is necessary when dealing with a deceased person.

If the doctor is unable to certify the cause of death, it is necessary to contact the police, who then will liaise with coronial staff. This will be necessary in such instances as: 

• Death other than by natural causes including violence, accidental or unusual causes. 
• Whilst under anaesthetic (or within 24 hours of the administration of an anaesthetic). 
• Unexpected death. 
• Death of a person in an institution, a prison or in police custody, drug or alcohol rehabilitation centre. 
• When the cause of death is unknown. 

Coronial staff or a government appointed funeral company will transfer the deceased to the coroner. A post-mortem examination, also known as an autopsy, is a detailed examination conducted to establish the cause of death. This examination is carried out by a doctor known as a pathologist. We will then liaise with coronial staff regarding release of the deceased into our care.

An identifying nameplate is placed on a coffin prior to cremation. Before cremation precedes, the nameplate is removed and used as a marker for the remains. The ashes of the deceased are then packaged appropriately for us to take back to our premises for the family to collect.