Canberra funeral home opening up to conferences, community events

A place for funerals, conferences and community events, that's what the managers hope a funeral home in Belconnen will be used for after the construction of a $3.4 million facility. Tobin Brothers/White Lady Funerals in Belconnen is set to open its new facility in the coming weeks. Location manager Cindy Smith said it had been designed with a function room and catering facilities that she said would be ideal for events other than funerals. "I believe we have moved to the point where people are comfortable with the thought of holding meetings, conferences and even community events in a function room attached to a funeral home," she said. "During COVID-19 with social distancing rules in place, we have had to be innovative in how we conduct services, so people are looking at our facilities in a different light and I believe that will continue once the world settles again. "We have created a serene, comfortable and welcoming facility that is also very functional and we hope Belconnen will adopt it as almost a focal point for the community to use and share all the time, not only for funerals." Most of the original buildings on the Nettlefold Street site were demolished 10 months ago - the only original building that remained was a heritage chapel, but this also underwent a facelift. Ms Smith said it was an exciting challenge to rebuild most of the site from scratch. "The location has been a funeral home for 45 years but the original building was very different to what we have created today," she said. "Only occasionally do you get the chance to start with a clean slate and build a facility the community can use that is a benchmark for the funeral industry." There is a non-denominational 70-seat chapel in the new funeral home, as well as an outdoor courtyard and additional rooms so staff can spend time with families. The facility will also have live streaming capability for funerals.