At the last minute, I also decided to do some damage to my savings account (I make rash financial decisions late at night), and send flowers to Karrakatta as instructed. I got this email from Interflora afterwards:
Our florist has contacted us to advise that due to the requested privacy of the funeral the Karrakatta Cemetery will not disclose the time of the funeral service. We can advise our florist to deliver your order as early as possible on 9th February and advise the cemetery attendant to pass the flowers on at the relevant time
But despite this suggestion that the burial would indeed be at Karrakatta, all evidence points to him having been interred at Fremantle instead, and not one report mentions that Karrakatta was involved at all. So I emailed Interflora last night and got this response:
I have chased up your order with the executing florist. Your order was delivered to the requested cemetery quite early on the morning of the 9th. There they were placed at an allocated tribute area and a book signed on your behalf. To the best of our florists knowledge this was in keeping with the Ledger family's wishes.
This seems odd to me, as everything from the newspapers to Wikipedia to FindaGrave has changed Karrakatta to Fremantle. Has anyone else been in touch with Interflora? What story did you get? I'm about to contact Karrakatta and ask what actually became of all the flowers we sent, and if the family received the cards that accompanied the flowers. I have a funny feeling that they'll just tell us what we want to hear, though.
I have been trying to follow-up with Interflora to find out where my flowers eventually went.
I placed my order last Thursday over the phone, requesting that it be sent to Karrakatta.
There had been no mention of Fremantle until the day of the funeral itself.
I phoned Interflora on Sunday morning and they returned my call on Monday. I was advised that my flowers had been delivered to Karrakatta "with many other floral tributes."
Interflora could not provide me with any further details; i.e., what the ultimate destination was, of my flowers and card addressed to "Mr Kim Ledger & Family."
So, yesterday I phoned the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board in Perth on 61893835200 -
www.mcb.wa.gov.au They administer Karrakatta and Fremantle Cemeteries, as well as three other cemeteries in Perth.
I asked if I could be advised where all the flowers that had been delivered to Karrakatta had eventually ended up. That was yesterday. I'm still awaiting their response. I won't let it drop. I will continue to chase them until such time as they provide me with a satisfactory response. Once they've done so, I will post that information here.
Re the issue of where Heath's remains are interred, from what I understand, it doesn't necessarily matter where a cremation takes place in relation to the final resting place of the remains. It doesn't follow that just because someone is cremated at Freemantle, that that is where the interment will take place. Jack, for example ended-up in both Texas and Wyoming.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that even though the cremation took place at Fremantle, the ashes are usually collected by the next of kin and disposed of in accordance with the wishes of the deceased (or the next of kin, if the death is sudden/unexpected). For example, my wishes are that my ashes be scattered into the Pacific Ocean on a full-moon night, off the headland at the Sydney beach where I grew up. However, the cremation will take place nowhere near that beach.
Which perhaps raises another issue. It may have been Heath's wish to have his ashes scattered. If that's the case, it is highly likely that only the immediate family will know the location.
As soon as I hear from the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board, I will post the outcome here.
