Tuggerah: Coast Family Funerals lodge DA for new mortuary as the dead outpace capacity

First it was cemeteries, now we’re on track to run out of room to prepare our dead with mortuaries at risk of not keeping pace with looming death rates. Read why here.

A Central Coast funeral home has put in a new application for a mortuary because of the high growth for its services. (File picture: iStock)

As the nation’s ageing population reaches a tipping point the death rate is expected to spiral within the next decade according to Australia’s peak funeral body.

But investment in new mortuaries on the Central Coast is at serious risk of failing to keep pace with just one application for a new mortuary in the past seven years.

Coast Family Funerals has lodged a development application for a “change of use” to convert a former bicycle repair shop at Joule Place, Tuggerah, into a 24-hour mortuary.

Until now the company has been using a third-party — Independent Mortuary Services — also in the same industrial street.

It is the first application for a new mortuary on the coast since 2018 when Independent Mortuary Services was approved.

The former Bicycle Tech Bar at Tuggerah will be converted into a mortuary if new plans are approved by Central Coast Council. Picture; Google

Coast Family Funerals director Alan McLean said they were a small family business.

“Every funeral director needs a mortuary, or access to one, it’s as simple as that,” he said.

Funeral homes need their own mortuaries, according to funeral directors. (File image: istock)

In its DA the company states it formed in 2021 and in the past four years it had experienced high growth.

“Current volumes justify the investment into an operations facility for sole use,” the DA states.

Under the plans Coast Family Funerals intends to convert the industrial unit, which used to be leased as the Bicycle Tech Bar, into a mortuary, a cool room, a funeral arrangement room and a viewing room.

“This site will not be used for embalming, only basic body preparation,” the DA states.

Coast Family Funerals has lodged plans to convert an industrial unit (4) at Joule Place Tuggerah into a mortuary. Picture: supplied

NSW Health maintains the Mortuary Registry, which lists just 11 mortuaries on the Central Coast but of those only five store and prepare bodies for burial or cremation. The other six are just funeral home shopfronts.

The other four existing mortuaries on the coast include Palmdale, which was approved in 2006, Mackay Family Funerals at Ourimbah approved in 2005, InvoCare Australia at Tumbi Umbi approved in 2004 and Coastal Funerals at West Gosford approved more than 15 years ago.

There are only five registered mortuaries on the Central Coast. (File image)

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data the death rate on the Central Coast has not changed much in the past decade, and if anything, it’s been on a slight decline from 6.1 deaths per 100,000 population to 5.7.

The state average is 5.3 deaths per 100,000 people.

However the sheer number of people dying has increased significantly in line with the region’s population growth.

ABS figures show the number of deaths recorded on the coast has increased from 3,071 in 2011 to a high of 3,642 in 2022 before dipping a bit to 3,482 in 2023, which is the most recently available data.

In context this equates to about 8.4 deaths a day in 2011 compared with 9.98 deaths in 2022 — or an extra 571 bodies a year that need to be washed, prepared and potentially embalmed ahead of their final goodbye.

Comparatively the number of mortuary services has failed to keep pace.

Australian Funeral Directors Association president Asha Dooley said in general it was better for funeral homes to have their own mortuary to control the level of care provided.

But she warned the country’s ageing population was expected to see death rates spike.

“There is a predicted growth in the death rate in the coming decades, as a result we anticipate there being a greater need for mortuaries and other facilities to properly care for the deceased,” she said.