Taphophilia.(dot) Com - Funeral coach provides 'wake on wheels'

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Funeral coach provides 'wake on wheels'

Friday, 22 April 2005

By Melissa Jenkins
April 21, 2005
From: AAP

MOURNERS can have a wake on wheels with the launch of Australia's first funeral coach today. Tobin Brothers Funerals' 14-seat converted mini-bus can accommodate 12 family members, the driver, a host to serve drinks and light snacks and a coffin. The coach will collect families, take them to the funeral and back home after the service. Mourners will travel in comfort and style, with the $300,000 coach equipped with leather seats, TV, DVD player, bar fridge and microwave. Families can watch regular television or a tribute to their dead loved one.
Tobin Brothers managing director Martin Tobin said the coach would allow families to travel together on an important day.

"If families want to have a champagne toast or a couple of quiet beers, there is no reason why that cannot happen," he said.

"In a sense this is a bit of a rule-breaker and we are just giving permission to families to do things differently and creatively."

Mr Tobin said although the concept may not be for everyone he expected the coach to have a wide appeal.

"I think people have a potential mindset that a bus isn't an appropriate vehicle for a funeral, but once they see inside this vehicle and see the way it's been done, I think they will get around that mindset," he said.

"We know that some ethnic communities do like travelling together with the deceased and that is something that we are aware of, but we think it will appeal to a wide variety of people in the community."

People are more exposed to and comfortable with death than they used to be, with many funerals of the famous broadcast on television, such as the service for the late John Paul II, Mr Tobin said.

The coach costs an additional $1000 on top of a regular funeral service, which is about $6000 for a cremation and $7000 for a burial.

A similar, larger coach was already being used in Belgium, Mr Tobin said.

Hearses were first used in Australia in the 1820s, initially being platforms on wheels drawn by a team of horses.

Later, a small number of shillibeers, a combined hearse and mourning coach, were imported but were not popular, and the hearse and mourning coach have been separated ever since.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15038832-29277,00.html

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