Cremation Services · Sheet 5 of 6
Keeping or sharing ashes
Ashes can be kept at home in an urn, placed with family in a cemetery, or carried overseas, and NSW Health says there is no public health risk in handling them. The rules mostly govern the hand-over: when the ashes are ready, who may collect them, and how long they are held if no one does.
There is time. In each state below, a crematorium must wait, give notice, or both, before it may do anything else with ashes no one has collected.
Collecting the ashes
| State | Who receives them | If no one collects them |
|---|---|---|
| Victoria | Ready for collection within 2 working days of the cremation. Only three people can receive them: the applicant, someone acting for the applicant, or, in some circumstances, the closest surviving relative. | The cemetery trust must hold them for at least 12 months. After that it may dispose of them, if at least 3 months before the 12 months end it took reasonable steps to tell the applicant. |
| New South Wales | Given to the applicant, usually a family member. | If they are not taken within a reasonable time, the cremation authority must give the applicant 14 days’ notice before it may dispose of them. |
| Queensland | Dealt with only according to the applicant’s reasonable written instructions. | If no instructions arrive within 1 year, the crematorium may bury the ashes in a burial ground, after giving the applicant at least 28 days’ written notice. |
Keeping them at home
NSW Health lists keeping the ashes in a decorative urn at home, or at another favourite spot with the owner’s consent, as one of the choices once they are collected. They usually come back in a labelled plastic container, or with a name plate attached, so an urn is a choice rather than a requirement. Brisbane City Council, for one, notes that a memorial urn for the family to keep can be bought in advance.
Sharing a resting place
Ashes can join family already at rest in several ways.
- In an existing grave. City of Gold Coast says ashes can be buried within an existing grave. Brisbane City Council allows a family grave to be re-used for ashes by a direct descendant of the people buried there, or someone related to the burial rights holder, where the grave has space or the last burial was more than 30 years ago.
- With the right holder’s permission. In Victoria, placing ashes in a public cemetery needs two approvals: the cemetery trust’s, and that of whoever holds the right of interment.
- In a shared site. City of Gold Coast’s ashes sites and columbarium niches can be bought for one or more interments, subject to availability.
When more than one person would like to keep some of the ashes, it helps to know who they will be handed to. NSW gives them to the applicant, and Victoria releases them to the applicant, their agent or in certain circumstances the nearest surviving relative, so a family’s agreement about sharing runs through that person.
Travelling overseas with ashes
Cemeteries & Crematoria NSW says it is legal in Australia to take cremated ashes overseas. NSW Health and Cemeteries & Crematoria NSW give the same list for the journey:
- contact the consulate of the country you are travelling to ahead of time, and follow its requirements;
- carry the ashes in a sealed urn or container in your hand luggage;
- bring a copy of the death certificate;
- bring a statement from the crematorium identifying the person, and the date and place of the cremation.
NSW Health adds that no approval is needed from a Public Health Unit to take ashes overseas. Ask the airline about its own rules before the day of travel.