So how is a state funeral organised? How do you weigh up the challenges of family preferences and tradition with thousands of public eyes glued to the event?
 
Australia--The nation will have to prepare itself for two very sad days of mourning next week. A state funeral for racing legend Peter Brock for Tuesday and on Wednesday, the memorial service for wildlife ambassador Steve Irwin.

Martin Tobin, managing director of Tobin Brothers funerals, will be organising Peter Brock’s state funeral for next week.

“The funeral will be held at 11am, Tuesday at St Pauls Cathedral in Melbourne.” Tobin says. “Typically people offered state funerals are from official postings, former ministers and judges fro example, it’s less common for people from outside government to be offered this honour.”

“In broad terms it will be a church based service at St Pauls Cathedral, there’ll be eulogies from family members and from close friends of Peter and there’ll be the traditional departure of the coffin.”

“We’ve made a point to ensure the vehicles we’re using are Holdens and there will be scope for them to bring into the service things that reflect his life and there’s be more scope for that at the public memorial later on.”

So how is a state funeral organised? How do you weigh up the challenges of family preferences and tradition with thousands of public eyes glued to the event?

“First and foremost the families wishes need to be included in the planning.” He says. “But certainly there are some protocols that the state would expect to be followed. They typically involve the people who are invited, such as a range of dignitaries.”

“Once the family accepts that there will be a state funeral, they then lose a certain amount of flexibility in terms of who is coming and who’s not coming, that’s part of the understanding when a state funeral if offered.”

“We often think of a funeral as a religious ritual, but they can also be a significant public event, so the challenge is organising something on such a large scale in a very limited time frame.”

But is there any real difference between a State funeral and a State memorial service?

“The only real difference between a memorial at a state funeral service is that with a funeral the coffin is actually present.” He says. “So a memorial service lets the families of the diseased conduct their own funeral service, and the memorial can be a celebration of the person’s life in public.”


http://www.abc.net.au/victoria/stories/s1739294.htm?backyard