Launceston's Dunn family bows out of Brisbane Street after 140 years

The most recent of the Dunn family to helm the funeral business, Joan Wright, marked the fourth generation of the family to take up the reins in the business's 139-year history.

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Founded by Irish immigrant John Dunn in 1883 as a stone masonry business, the operation began its life on the site where the Launceston town clock now resides.

The business didn't move into funeral services until much later in its life but set up shop at the family's well-known Brisbane Street location in 1903.

As stonemasons, the family have helped shape many notable parts of the state and beyond, including carving the original altar at Launceston's Church of Apostles more than a century ago.

Other notable pieces completed by the Dunn family business include the facade of The Reserve Bank in Launceston and Hobart, Launceston's Magistrates Court and the foundation's of the Launceston Quadrant Mall. When the Australian War Cemetery in New Guinea was damaged by vandals, it was the masons of the Dunn family business that were sent overseas to repair and restore the site.

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Mrs Wright's father joined his own father in the business in 1935 and took over as owner-operator in 1950. Three years later, the business began its expansion beyond stone masonry and into the funeral services industry.

Both Mrs Wright and her brother John G Dunn - now a talented mason himself - started up in the family business in the 1970s. That said, Mrs Wright said training in the family craft often began long before the Dunn children had left school.

"When he was nine, dad would be given a piece of stone at the kitchen table by his father and he would have to carve it," she said.

By the 1970s, Mrs Wright had spent her early 20s pursuing other interests, before beginning working with her father on Brisbane street and starting her own family.

"I came on to help with bookkeeping. I had no idea when I started how long I'd end up working there," she said.

By the 1980s, the business had grown substantially so Mrs Wright's brother moved with the stone masonry business up to the company's prospect site - where the business remains today. It should be noted that the stone masonry business - which is now separate from the funeral business - has not been impacted by the sale of the Brisbane Street property.

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Mrs Wright continued to work at the J.A. Dunn Funeral Directors until the early 2000s, when she retired.

"The job was seven days a week, 365 days a year - you're always on call in this kind of business," she said.

The funeral business - along with the rights to continue using the J.A. Dunn name - were sold to ASX-listed funeral service multinational Invocare in March 2018.

Despite the sale of the business, the family continued to own the Brisbane Street properties, leasing them to Invocare and the ongoing funeral operation over the next few years.

It wasn't until a couple of years ago, when a Hobart-based firm offered out of the blue to buy the site that the family even considered a sale.

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Despite a sizable initial offer, Mrs Wright was hesitant to sell the property given her family's 100-plus-year history on Brisbane Street.

"I thought dad would kill me!"

But negotiations continued, the offer improved and - following the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic - the family agreed that it was time to sell. Despite finalising the deal more than a year ago, Mrs Wright told the prospective new owners that - given the delicate nature of a funeral business schedule - they would have to wait a little longer to officially complete the sale.

The multi-million-dollar million deal finally settled in December, allowing the new owner - Pharos Properties - to assume control of the site. Pharos Properties was contacted by the paper regarding its plans for the sizable lot but did not respond in time for publication.

The Examiner understands that the existing funeral business is expected to remain at the site in the short-term. It remains unclear if the new property owners intend to develop the site for a different use at a later date.

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