Funeral homes have constantly been forced to adapt to ensure people can still farewell their loved ones, with limited gatherings, social distancing, and sudden changes to restrictions all creating obstacles.

The permitted number of attendees at a ceremony is 300, having gradually risen since the May 28 circuit breaker lockdown was announced, when attendees were capped at 10.

John Dunn Funerals manager Ben Mills said these limits have often forced people to make difficult decisions.

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"There have been some pretty considerable challenges for families, especially when numbers have been really low," he said.

"It's pretty irregular that somebody's family is actually smaller than 10. People come to the point where they've had to select people or ask who's willing to not go to the service. It would obviously be a pretty terrible thing to have to ask a family member not to attend another family members funeral."

The short notice given before restrictions has changed exacerbated these issues.

"We have to be up to date when things happen," Mr Mills said.

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"We might have already organised a funeral where we could have had 150 people, and then the next day, there might be an announcement the whole state is shutting down.

"When restrictions first came in a year ago a lot of people were delaying services. We would often go ahead with the cremation or the burial and they would look to organise a memorial service down the track. A lot of the time, as far as I know, that didn't end up happening because there was such a long period in between."

Like many others in the industry, John Dunn Funerals have begun live-streaming services for those who cannot attend.

Mr Mills said live-streaming services was challenging but beneficial.

"Our only consolation we've had for some people is to be able to livestream and that's been really popular: probably eight out of 10 families have opted to do that," he said.

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"It was a pretty steep learning curve for us, having never done that before COVID came around. It's been an ongoing challenge.

"We started with as simple a set up as we could just for ease of usability. It's hard to find the time to set up everything in between funerals. We've tried to improve it along the way using different cameras and different streaming platforms.

"There's also the challenge of recording in big old churches that pretty echoey at the best of times."

Despite the extra expenditure and workload created by live streaming, Mr Mills said it had become an essential part of many services that would likely remain.

"There's always the geographical obstacle. Most families these days will have members scattered across Australia or even overseas, so it's definitely something that's here to stay."

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