Title: State funded funerals: What happens to unclaimed and unidentified dead people in Australia?
Headings: Australia’s ‘unclaimed persons’: what happens to those who die alone?
true stories
Australia’s ‘unclaimed persons’: what happens to those who die alone?
Megan Palin
‘WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN I DIE?’
JOHN AND JANE DOE’S
STREET KIDS DUMPED IN UNMARKED COMMUNAL GRAVES
BABY WITH NO NAME: “ANGEL IN HEAVEN”
THE SOMERTON MAN

Content: The unclaimed bodies are typically elderly people without children who have outlived a spouse and siblings; immigrants; the poor; homeless and others estranged from their families. If they remain unclaimed, the state coroner will release the body to a funeral home with a government contract. The Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney-General is required to provide a “simple burial or cremation” to any deceased person whose assets cannot cover the cost of their funeral and whose relatives and friends also cannot pay. The state’s Burials Assistance Act 1965 states that funeral directors must provide “a properly made, conventionally shaped, stained and suitably lined coffin”. They are to conduct the funeral “in a proper and respectful manner” and provide either a gravesite or crematorium service. In 2012, there were 385 cremations or burials under the Burials Assistance Scheme at a total cost of more than $600,000. A NSW Health spokesperson told news.com.au the Local Health Districts were responsible for the processing and payment of destitute burials and cremations in their district.