Kerry Many thanks for your research and advice. Best regards Chris On 21/05/2009 23:23, "Kerry Raymond" <kerry.raymond@gmail.com> wrote: > 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 >