Many HC' threads have this title by individual stock so I thought good to start one here for those 'in between' timings of major company announcements.
PFP has a good presence in Sydney. (It does not at all in Melbourne).
More people died last year than ever before. Sydney’s death industry has struggled to cope
Morticians cannot keep up and Sydney is running out of space.
At the near-full Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney’s death problems are made clear.Credit:Steven Siewert
Everyone dies. But last year in NSW, far more people than usual did. Every single week up to September, dozens more deaths were reported than the state’s average. The cause is no secret: a rapidly ageing population combined with the ongoing impact of the pandemic.
But behind those numbers stands a colossal and often misunderstood industry that deals with everything from palliative care and burials to cremation and counselling.
And under immense pressure, 2022 changed it forever.
Crematorium operators spent the year dealing with a “high volume” of requests, funeral directors have been forced to increase their services and, as if to prove bureaucracy stays with you to the grave, the city’s cemeteries are set to be full within 10 years.
In 2022, far more people than usual died
Deaths exceeded New South Wales' baseline average every week but two in September.
At its worst, during the peak of the Omicron crisis in January 2022, there were 367 extra deaths in a single week. After a slight slump, the number trended up once again to August.
Guardian Funerals, a giant provider of funerals across the state, said they assisted “more families than ever before in 2022 and as we have commenced 2023, there continues to be an increased demand for our services.”
At their funeral parlour in Lidcombe, the work piled up for morticians Irini Papanikolaou and Jo Place. Working as an embalmer for parent company InvoCare – which also runs White Lady Funerals, Simplicity Funerals and more than 50 other Australian funerals and crematorium brands –Papanikolaou cares for the dead: she dresses them in clothes, styles their hair and makes them look presentable for their family’s final viewing.
“I absolutely love what I do,” she says. “I’ve been doing this for many years, and it’s just an honour to be able to prepare a deceased.” She says there are challenges associated with the job, particularly in times of traumatic or early death.
The work is made harder when it’s busy – Papanikolaou sometimes works up to 12-hour days.
At Guardian Funerals in Lidcombe, morticians Katie Cassidy, Jo Place and Thalia McMurray clean their station.Credit:Steven Siewert
Colleague Jo Place says arranging memorials at peak periods can be challenging.
“It’s about having the conversations with the families about understanding when the funerals can happen,” she says. “It’s really about the scheduling of the funeral service itself.”
Nick Maurer, the third-generation leader of Maurer Family Funerals in Chatswood, says his family business felt the pinch but kept up with demand.
“We’ve got a relatively small market share. If we go from 40 to 50 funerals a month, that’s a big increase for us,” he says.
While it can take between five and 10 days to organise a funeral, his business has helped organise funerals in far shorter time periods for clients turned away by other companies due to lack of capacity.
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