Arranging a funeral

There are two occasions when you might arrange a funeral: when someone close to you has died and you need to make immediate arrangements, or when you make arrangements for your own funeral in advance – a popular common sense part of financial planning today.

Your first step in either situation is to contact your Funeral Director to help you with your arrangements. This can be either in your own home or in one of our funeral homes – the choice is entirely up to you.

Although there are a range of legal requirements in all funeral arrangements, every funeral is a very special and personal occasion. 

The necessary items

To arrange a funeral, certain legal formalities have to be completed by the funeral director on your behalf. The following information about the person who has died is required in order for us to register the death with the Registrar General's Office.

• Full name
• Address (last place of residence)
• Occupation or former occupation
• Religion
• Date and place of birth
• How long he or she lived in Australia
• Father's full name and occupation if known
• Mother's full name, maiden name and occupation if known
• The date and place of any marriages that may have occurred, and full names of spouse(s) if known
• Full names and ages of any children of the deceased that may have been born, legally adopted, stillborn or deceased if known

Special services and repatriation

Since 1999, Oakwood Funerals has arranged and conducted State Funerals for the families of noted dignitaries, arranged and conducted funerals for returned service personnel including all military honours, and conducted funerals including a range of other extra-ordinary special services.

As it is our custom to focus on the little things and finer details, no funeral service is beyond our understanding and scope. If you have a requirement for a special funeral service, talk to an Oakwood Funeral Director.

If a family member or loved on dies while overseas, we can arrange the repatriation of the deceased back home for funeral arrangements, including all necessary mortuary care, travel arrangements and documentation.

If a visitor dies in Australia and repatriation is required to the deceased’s home country, we can carry out all the necessary arrangements, meeting all religious and cultural needs as well as attending to all documentation and transport arrangements.

After funeral functions

Oakwood Funerals offers condolence facilities for families and mourners to gather following the service, and can include catering and hospitality for up to 120 people.

Our condolence facilities include comfortable lounge space with full catering facilities and audio visual technology. If you want to arrange an after-service gathering in a larger venue, we are happy to make the venue arrangements.