Not sure exactly what you mean by "accepted practice" but as far as I know the first crematorium in Brisbane was Mt Thompson which commenced operation in 1934 (from memory). It was the only one until about the early 1970s when Albany Creek Crematorium started. Just as cemeteries have to maintain a burial register, so too crematoriums are required to keep records of cremations. But neither are held "centrally". It is the death itself that is recorded by the Registrar-General, although the details of burial/cremation should appear on the death certificate. While Brisbane City Council operated most (although not all) cemeteries within its boundaries, crematoriums were generally privately operated. It is only quite recently (this last decade?) that the council has established its own crematoriums. Many of the private operators of crematoriums haven't been very cooperative with the family history community in making their registers accessible for indexing. There are indexes for the first 20-30 years of cremations at Mt Thompson but they are not online but family history societies may hold them as do some individuals on mailing lists. As the ashes from some cremations are buried in graves in cemeteries (usually with buried family members), you do find some evidence of cremations in burial registers (as the interment of ashes has to be recorded in the burial register). Generally if the date of burial in the Brisbane City Council database is some time after the known date of death, consider the possibility of a burial of ashes. For family history, the problem with cremation in Brisbane is twofold -- the lack of indexes and the fact that many families simply take the ashes home in an urn or scatter them, leaving no plaque for us to find. Burials tend to be easier to track down through burial registers and monumental inscriptions. Kerry -----Original Message----- From: aus-qld-brisbane-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:aus-qld-brisbane-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Chris Elmore Sent: Thursday, 21 May 2009 2:15 AM To: Queensland Queensland Subject: [AUS-QLD-BRISBANE] Cremation in BRISBANE Hi Listers Does anyone know when cremation became accepted practice in Queensland and whether there are central records kept of such cremations. As ever your advice would be very much appreciated. Best regards Chris England Researching MORRIS of Boulton Derby and of Aspley Nottingham and Brisbane Toowoomba Dead Persons Society www.audps.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to AUS-QLD-BRISBANE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Kerry Thank you for your reply. Accepted practice was a poor choice of words. Here in the UK cremation was practically unheard of until a specific act of parliament in about 1902. My query was to establish if Australia was on a similar time line. I am looking in to a family legend regarding an unidentified aunt who, in the mid 1920's, allegedly visited the family in England from abroad carrying her husbands ashes. Currently, I am aware of only Queensland overseas relatives I had hoped to search a listing for family names. However, from your reply it sounds as if the 1920's was too early for the aunt to have been a Queenslander. Thank you again for your help. Best regards Chris On 20/05/2009 21:39, "Kerry Raymond" <kraymond@iprimus.com.au> wrote: > Not sure exactly what you mean by "accepted practice" but as far as I know > the first crematorium in Brisbane was Mt Thompson which commenced operation > in 1934 (from memory). It was the only one until about the early 1970s when > Albany Creek Crematorium started. > > Just as cemeteries have to maintain a burial register, so too crematoriums > are required to keep records of cremations. But neither are held > "centrally". It is the death itself that is recorded by the > Registrar-General, although the details of burial/cremation should appear on > the death certificate. > > While Brisbane City Council operated most (although not all) cemeteries > within its boundaries, crematoriums were generally privately operated. It is > only quite recently (this last decade?) that the council has established its > own crematoriums. > > Many of the private operators of crematoriums haven't been very cooperative > with the family history community in making their registers accessible for > indexing. There are indexes for the first 20-30 years of cremations at Mt > Thompson but they are not online but family history societies may hold them > as do some individuals on mailing lists. > > As the ashes from some cremations are buried in graves in cemeteries > (usually with buried family members), you do find some evidence of > cremations in burial registers (as the interment of ashes has to be recorded > in the burial register). Generally if the date of burial in the Brisbane > City Council database is some time after the known date of death, consider > the possibility of a burial of ashes. > > For family history, the problem with cremation in Brisbane is twofold -- the > lack of indexes and the fact that many families simply take the ashes home > in an urn or scatter them, leaving no plaque for us to find. Burials tend to > be easier to track down through burial registers and monumental > inscriptions. > > Kerry > > -----Original Message----- > From: aus-qld-brisbane-bounces@rootsweb.com > [mailto:aus-qld-brisbane-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Chris Elmore > Sent: Thursday, 21 May 2009 2:15 AM > To: Queensland Queensland > Subject: [AUS-QLD-BRISBANE] Cremation in BRISBANE > > Hi Listers > Does anyone know when cremation became accepted practice in Queensland and > whether there are central records kept of such cremations. > As ever your advice would be very much appreciated. > Best regards > Chris > England > Researching MORRIS of Boulton Derby and of Aspley Nottingham and Brisbane > > > > > > Toowoomba Dead Persons Society > www.audps.com > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > AUS-QLD-BRISBANE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > > > > > Toowoomba Dead Persons Society > www.audps.com > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > AUS-QLD-BRISBANE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message

There is a Cremation Act of 1913 in Queensland (I don't know of anything earlier). So I presume no crematorium could have operated in Queensland prior to that but there is still plenty of time to have established one by the mid 1920s to fit your family story. Mt Thompson is the oldest operating crematorium in Queensland (or so I believe) but maybe there was an earlier one that closed. As to accepted practice, there is talk of the need for cremation in Queensland appearing in Brisbane newspapers going back into the late 1800s, so presumably over time there must have been increasing public acceptance of cremation that preceded the legislation. Some religions (e.g. Catholics weren't supporters of cremation I believe at the time) so this may have slowed down the progress of legislation. Also when the Brisbane General Cemetery at Toowong was established in around 1870s-80s, it was considered by many to be too far out of town and that may have increased the pressure to have a more centrally located crematorium in Brisbane. Having said that, Mt Thompson is further from the centre of Brisbane than Toowong, but then we are talking 40-50 years later when Mt Thompson was built and people's transport options would have changed considerably over that time. Having said all that, there are still religious groups out there that aren't fans of cremation and so one could not describe it as "universally accepted" even today. Proportionally a lot more people in Australia are buried rather than cremated, compared with the UK. But I am not sure if this reflects different public acceptance of cremation or not. It may reflect the greater availability of land and hence the cost differential between burial and cremation may be lower in Australia (but that suggests Australians have some tendency to prefer burial given that burial is always the more expensive option). Also, in Australia, most small towns don't have a crematorium and some are a long way away from a town with a crematorium (a less common situation in the UK), so most people in those communities will be buried locally. Kerry -----Original Message----- From: aus-qld-brisbane-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:aus-qld-brisbane-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Chris Elmore Sent: Friday, 22 May 2009 7:01 AM To: kraymond@iprimus.com.au; Queensland Queensland Subject: Re: [AUS-QLD-BRISBANE] Cremation in BRISBANE Kerry Thank you for your reply. Accepted practice was a poor choice of words. Here in the UK cremation was practically unheard of until a specific act of parliament in about 1902. My query was to establish if Australia was on a similar time line. I am looking in to a family legend regarding an unidentified aunt who, in the mid 1920's, allegedly visited the family in England from abroad carrying her husbands ashes. Currently, I am aware of only Queensland overseas relatives I had hoped to search a listing for family names. However, from your reply it sounds as if the 1920's was too early for the aunt to have been a Queenslander. Thank you again for your help. Best regards Chris On 20/05/2009 21:39, "Kerry Raymond" <kraymond@iprimus.com.au> wrote: > Not sure exactly what you mean by "accepted practice" but as far as I know > the first crematorium in Brisbane was Mt Thompson which commenced operation > in 1934 (from memory). It was the only one until about the early 1970s when > Albany Creek Crematorium started. > > Just as cemeteries have to maintain a burial register, so too crematoriums > are required to keep records of cremations. But neither are held > "centrally". It is the death itself that is recorded by the > Registrar-General, although the details of burial/cremation should appear on > the death certificate. > > While Brisbane City Council operated most (although not all) cemeteries > within its boundaries, crematoriums were generally privately operated. It is > only quite recently (this last decade?) that the council has established its > own crematoriums. > > Many of the private operators of crematoriums haven't been very cooperative > with the family history community in making their registers accessible for > indexing. There are indexes for the first 20-30 years of cremations at Mt > Thompson but they are not online but family history societies may hold them > as do some individuals on mailing lists. > > As the ashes from some cremations are buried in graves in cemeteries > (usually with buried family members), you do find some evidence of > cremations in burial registers (as the interment of ashes has to be recorded > in the burial register). Generally if the date of burial in the Brisbane > City Council database is some time after the known date of death, consider > the possibility of a burial of ashes. > > For family history, the problem with cremation in Brisbane is twofold -- the > lack of indexes and the fact that many families simply take the ashes home > in an urn or scatter them, leaving no plaque for us to find. Burials tend to > be easier to track down through burial registers and monumental > inscriptions. > > Kerry > > -----Original Message----- > From: aus-qld-brisbane-bounces@rootsweb.com > [mailto:aus-qld-brisbane-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Chris Elmore > Sent: Thursday, 21 May 2009 2:15 AM > To: Queensland Queensland > Subject: [AUS-QLD-BRISBANE] Cremation in BRISBANE > > Hi Listers > Does anyone know when cremation became accepted practice in Queensland and > whether there are central records kept of such cremations. > As ever your advice would be very much appreciated. > Best regards > Chris > England > Researching MORRIS of Boulton Derby and of Aspley Nottingham and Brisbane > > > > > > Toowoomba Dead Persons Society > www.audps.com > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > AUS-QLD-BRISBANE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > > > > > Toowoomba Dead Persons Society > www.audps.com > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > AUS-QLD-BRISBANE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message Toowoomba Dead Persons Society www.audps.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to AUS-QLD-BRISBANE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message