Cremation Services

A guide to the process and the places, published by Dotto

Cremation Services · Sheet 2 of 6

Paperwork before a cremation

Before a cremation in NSW, Victoria, Queensland or Western Australia, someone applies, a doctor checks the papers or signs a certificate, and a written permission is issued. Each state names these steps differently: in NSW and Western Australia a medical referee issues a permit, in Victoria the cemetery trust grants an approval, and in Queensland a coroner, or a doctor who did not sign the cause of death certificate, gives permission.

Four states set out; four more linked
General informationThis page describes the forms; it is not legal advice. The authority in each state is the place to check: NSW Health, Victoria’s Department of Health, Queensland’s Cremations Act 2003, and Western Australia’s Department of Health.

NSW’s guide to arranging a funeral lists collecting and lodging legal documents among the services funeral directors usually provide, and notes there is no legal requirement to use one. Either way, it helps to know what each paper is for.

The three papers, state by state

What is signed, and by whom
StateThe applicationThe doctor’s partThe permission
New South Wales An Application for Permission for Cremation, made with a statutory declaration; the form itself sets out who may make it. A medical referee who did not issue the death certificate, did not treat the person in the 6 months before death, and is not a close relative, checks the application and the death certificate. The medical referee’s cremation permit. NSW Health also publishes a coroner’s cremation permit form.
Victoria Form 5, with supporting documents such as a medical certificate of cause of death, made to a cemetery trust that provides cremation services, by the applicant or someone on their behalf, such as a funeral director. In most cases Form 6, completed by a registered medical practitioner who is not the doctor who completed the notice of the death under the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act. The cemetery trust grants a cremation approval and should confirm it in writing.
Queensland An application in the approved form, sent with a copy of the cause of death certificate and, unless the death was certified outside Queensland and no cremation risk certificate has been issued, a cremation risk certificate. A doctor who did not sign the cause of death certificate or the cremation risk certificate examines the remains and makes any necessary inquiries. A permission to cremate, from that doctor, or from a coroner if there was a coronial autopsy.
Western Australia Form 6, Application for permit to cremate, usually made by the senior next of kin or the administrator of the estate. Form 7, the certificate of medical practitioner, completed by the doctor who attended the person before death. Form 9, the permit to cremate, issued by a medical referee. The funeral director gives it to the crematorium.

What the application asks

The questions are easier to answer when you know they are coming. NSW’s application form, for example, asks for:

  • the applicant’s full name and address, and their relationship to the person who died;
  • the person’s last address, marital status, age, sex and occupation;
  • the date and time of death, and where it happened, such as at home, in hospital or in a nursing home;
  • whether the person left written directions about what should happen to their body;
  • the name and address of their usual doctor, and of the doctors who attended their last illness;
  • the registry office where the death has been, or will be, registered;
  • whether any battery-powered device was present in the body.

The form also asks whether there is any reason to suspect the death was caused by violence, poison, neglect or similar causes. The medical referee, in turn, certifies having no reason to believe the death should be examined by a coroner.

When a coroner is involved

The papers change when a coroner has been involved in the death.

  • Victoria: Form 6 is not needed for a death investigated by a coroner, or for a still-born child.
  • Queensland: if an autopsy was ordered under the Coroners Act, the coroner issues the permission, once the coroner has authorised the release of the body and the doctor who did the autopsy has confirmed there is no cremation risk.
  • NSW: NSW Health publishes a separate coroner’s cremation permit.

When the death happened in another state

In Victoria, if the death occurred outside the state, Form 6 is not required, and an authority to cremate from a coroner or another person permitted by that state’s law may be enough. If the cemetery trust is unsure the documents are valid, it must refer the applicant to the Department of Health. In Queensland, a cremation may go ahead under an interstate coroner’s permission once a doctor has examined the remains and certified they pose no cremation risk.

South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory

Each has its own law. Its forms are not set out here; the law is linked below, and the state’s health department or the crematorium can say which forms apply.