No fuss and no frills: the David Bowie way

When the singer songwriter David Bowie died last year he had the ultimate no-fuss, no-frills funeral with a “direct cremation”. The body is sent directly for cremation from the hospital with no attendance or ceremony. Ashes are scattered or returned to the family afterwards.

A direct committal or cremation costs about $1500 in Australia. The memorial, or celebration of life, can be held at home, at a park or on a beach afterwards. In Tasmania’s north-west a community coffin club meets at the Ulverstone Community Shed to make coffins for themselves or family members for as little as $200.

Typically, the biggest cost of a funeral is the professional service fee at 39%, followed by the coffin at 31% (see graphic). The funeral director relieves the bereaved from having to organise the funeral themselves within a few days.

For many people that is a big relief. The funeral director organises the transfer of the body to a mortuary or funeral premises, provides the coffin, arranges the ceremony and committal, organises floral tributes and newspaper notices, gets the medical certificate, registers the death, arranges a viewing, organises the hearse to the ceremony and committal, and makes all the payments for costs such as clergy fees, flowers, notices, cemetery/crematoria fees and grief counselling.

Choice is important, including the option of having an affordable, basic funeral. Always ask for an itemised price list (in writing) before you meet any funeral director. Fair trading departments in most states require it.