Recommended Funeral Homes

    Several people have asked me what funeral homes I would recommend and why. I find this a tough question to answer as personally I feel it is hard to find a 'bad' funeral home because the vast majority are to a respectable standard.

    Rather than looking for a "good" funeral home I feel people would be better looking for the "right" funeral home. That is, every funeral home I have personally seen or directly interacted with is to a high standard. The staff genuinely care about the mourners and the deceased, and the service offered is often great. So instead of looking for a good funeral home I believe time would be better spent finding one that 'felt' right, that suited what the deceased and/or mourners wanted.

    So having said that I have put together a list of various funeral homes I recommend, and attempted to describe their style and atmosphere.

    It should be noted that this list is in alphabetical order, so there is no preference. Also, this is a list of funeral homes that I personally know, just because a funeral home is not listed here does not make it bad. For example Olsens Funerals and Concept Funerals are good companies that I would recommend but don't know enough about to describe accurately.


Divinity Funerals
    This is a relatively new funeral home, while it specialises in Greek funerals Divinity is more than capable with any service. Divinity is one of the smaller funeral homes, with just a handful of staff, meaning a personal and quality experience is almost guaranteed.

- Divinity website

- Divnity contact page


Eastern Suburbs Funeral Home
    Eastern Suburbs Funeral Home (ESFH) is part of Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park (ESMP). So it is set in a nice location, making it a somewhat picturesque and practical location for a funeral home. ESFH has a great mortuary with some innovative equipment and designs (which you can see in this post). I've found ESFH to be quite modern in approach and attitude, yet it still has a traditional atmosphere.

- My post and photos of ESFH during their open day.

- Eastern Suburbs Funeral Home website

- Eastern Suburbs Funeral Home contact page


InvoCare
    This is by far the biggest company in Australia and certainly Sydney. They own several funeral home brands, most notably Guardian, Simplicity, and White Ladys. This size of the company is both good and bad in terms of recommending the company. On one hand being so large means InvoCare can offer rather competitive pricing (if that is a concern) and a very streamlined and efficient funeral service. Yet, due to the size there are so many variables to this company. InvoCare employs about 1,500 staff across Australia, so while the bulk of staff are great you could potentially end up with one or two who aren't so good. Despite this I have no hesitations with recommending InvoCare to anyone.

The three main brands for InvoCare are:
- Guardian Funerals - a more traditional style of service (Guardian website & contact details).
- Simplicity Funerals - a simple and more efficient service focused on lower prices (Simplicity website & contact details).
- White Lady Funerals - the flagship of InvoCare, this is a modern all female funeral home (White Lady website & contact details).

- List of InvoCare owned cemeteries and crematoria.

- List of InvoCare owned funeral homes.

- InvoCare funeral home search by postcode.


Lady Anne Funerals
    Lady Anne is a place I have always found inviting and friendly. They strive to offer a personal and individual service for everyone under their care. For example, one time while I was there an arranger discovered the deceased was a very keen gardener of native Australian plants. So she found some nice images of Australian plants for the order of service. Lady Anne is a modern style of funeral home with an wonderful mortuary (photos of the mortuary) and an ever present personal touch to everything it does.

- My post and photos of Lady Anne.

- Lady Anne website

- Lady Anne contact page


Mannings Funerals
    Mannings funerals manages to be both relaxed and professional at once. This is a company with a friendly and traditional feel. It's also an open funeral home with an upfront and transparent attitude to how it operates and what it charges.

- Mannings website

- Mannings contact page


The Walker Group
    The Walker Group is a relatively large funeral company which owns several funeral homes, including; Albert & Meyer, No Flowers No Fuss, Joseph Medcalf, Max Perram and more (full list available here). While I know relatively little about the Walker Group what I have heard is good and that the standard of care is high. So while not having a lot of information this is a company I would happily recommend.

- Albert & Meyer website.

- Bernard Laverty website.

- James Murray website.

- Joseph Medcalf website.

- No Flowers No Fuss website.

- Max Perram website.


Walter Carter Funerals
    Walter Carter is one of the most modern and unique funeral homes I have had the pleasure of interacting with. This company doesn't model itself on funeral companies, but instead looks to high end restaurants and retails shops for inspiration. As such Walter Carter provides a service unlike many other funeral homes.

- My post and photos of Lady Anne.

- Lady Anne website

- Lady Anne contact page


~~