Where we come to, and what 'any hour' actually means

We are based in Mooroobool in Cairns and we bring people into our care from across Far North Queensland: Cairns and its suburbs, the northern beaches, Port Douglas and Mossman, the Atherton Tablelands, and south to Innisfail. The phone is answered any hour of the day or night, and a transfer can begin whenever it is needed. What changes outside office hours is only the cost of the transfer, and we tell you that number before anything happens.

When someone dies, the two things a family needs to know straight away are whether the people they are ringing will actually come to them, and whether it matters what time it is. Both deserve a straight answer rather than a promise on a website, so here is exactly how it works for us.

Where we come to

Our base is in Mooroobool, a few minutes from the Cairns CBD, so a call about someone in Cairns is answered by a local and the transfer starts from here. We collect from home, from Cairns Hospital and the private hospitals, from a hospice, and from aged care facilities across the city, from Edmonton and Gordonvale in the south to Smithfield, Trinity Beach and Palm Cove in the north.

Beyond Cairns we regularly come to Port Douglas and Mossman, up the range to the Atherton Tablelands, and down the coast to Innisfail. If you are somewhere in Far North Queensland that is not on that list, ring anyway. Distance is a conversation, not a refusal, and we will tell you plainly whether we can help and what it would involve.

What "any hour" means, and what it does not

It means the phone is answered at three in the morning as well as three in the afternoon, and that a transfer into our care can happen at any hour, seven days a week. It does not mean the office is open all night. Office hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm. Paperwork, certificates, the application to cremate and the return of the ashes are office-hours work, and there is nothing lost by that: none of it can move any faster than the doctors and the registry allow anyway.

The one thing that changes outside office hours is the cost of the transfer. The published price covers transfers Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. A transfer overnight or on a weekend may cost more, and we will always tell you the exact amount before anything happens, so there is never a surprise on the invoice.

Does it matter how quickly you ring?

Less than people fear. If someone has died at home, the first call is to a doctor or, if the death was unexpected, to the police, and they will guide you on what happens next. Our guide to what to do when someone dies walks through that first hour. If someone has died in hospital, a hospice or aged care, the staff will care for them until we arrive, and there is no rush on the family to make a decision that night.

What ringing early does do is let us answer the questions while they are fresh, tell you what the next few days look like, and start the paperwork that sets the pace of everything else. Our guide to how long a direct cremation takes explains that timeline.

If you are organising this from interstate

Plenty of Cairns and FNQ families have adult children in Brisbane, Sydney or further away. Being the one who rings from another city is completely normal for us. Everything from the first call to the return of the ashes can be handled by phone and email, and the ashes can be delivered to your family or to a nominated friend here.

Call Shane on 0461 543 517, any hour, or read more about how a direct cremation works.