1. Want to take the body home yourself? Not many people know that it is completely legal for family and friends to move a body from an institution (hospital, nursing home, hospice care etc) and transport it back home.
In the book Funeral Rights, Victorian barrister Robert Larkins says it would be no surprise, however, if this request was met with some resistance from medical staff (mainly because the requests are few).
2. It is also completely legal to carry a dead body in a private vehicle. In NSW the body must be wrapped in a sheet of thick plastic, 2.4 metres by 1.5 metres, and should not be transported for more than eight hours while unrefrigerated.
3. In Australia, NSW is the only state with rules that specify how long a deceased person can be kept at home or without refrigeration. Larkins says the lack of regulation in other states for dealing with a dead body is probably because "the practice of caring for the body at home has been fairly absent since the 1920's".
4. In NSW, a person who is not a funeral director cannot retain a body for more than five days from death. But the Director General may approve a body being detained for longer than five days.
5. A person cannot bury or cremate a body unless it is placed in a coffin and the coffin has been securely sealed.
6. It is legal to bury a body on private land, but gaining permission requires time. This means dealing with your local area government and health and environment authorities. If you have a mortgage, the bank might want to know how a grave may affect the value of the property. As well, there are different rules for private burial within each state.
Photo: Denis-Carl Robidoux
7. Some community and religious groups have been given permission by the Director-General to bury loved ones in a shroud rather than a coffin because tradition requires the person to be in direct contact with the earth. See: Burials - Exemptions from Public Health Regulation 2012 for Community and Religious Reasons.
8. Prefer to be buried at sea? That will set you back $1675. It's not an automatic right and and you'll need to show that you have a long-standing connection to the sea to have that request considered. Applications should be posted in to the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.
9. If the person is cremated, you'll still need to get permission from the master of the vessel or boat before scattering the ashes at sea.
