F.W. Barnes & Son Funeral Directors

The families of Ballarat and surrounding districts have relied on the services of F.W. Barnes and Son Funeral Directors for more than 120 years. of F.W. Barnes and Son has its origins in the business Jordan and Tippett Furnishing Undertakers which began trading from premises in Armstrong Street South in Ballarat about September, 1895.

The business was a partnership of Mr William Woolridge Jordan, a funeral director with some experience, and Mr George Francis Tippett, a Canadian-born tailor who arrived in Australia as a 10-year-old. After the untimely death of Mr Tippett in 1912, Mr Jordan decided he could no longer continue in the business and decided to sell the business to F.W. Barnes in June of 1913.

Frederick William Barnes was already well known in the area as the son of Thomas C. Barnes, a prominent operator of a bakery, general store and undertakers in Learmonth. Frederick Barnes had worked in partnership with Mr H. Laughlin in the large and well-respected funeral firm of Charles Morris and Sons Furnishing Undertaker.

Charles was a good friend of Thomas Barnes. The Morris firm operated during the gold rush period, arranging Frederick"s son Doug joined the firm after he returned from the World War One. He had been promoted to the rank of major and received an MBE. Doug and his father worked together for about 20 years until F.W. died suddenly in 1940.

Doug continued on in the business until about 1960 when he decided to sell the firm to long-time acquaintance Les Lillingston. Leslie Royce Lillingston had lived most in his life in and around Ballarat, except for his time in service during World War Two. In about 1965 Les transferred the F.W. Barnes and Son Funeral Home from premises at 14 Armstrong Street to a new site at 1311 Sturt Street.

He retained the strong traditions of service that F.W. Barnes and Son Funeral Directors had become known for until 1990 when ill health forced him to consider selling the firm. After some consideration Les decided the Mulqueen Family of Bendigo was the company to take over the reins. The Mulqueen Family comes from a strong tradition of funeral service, having operated as undertakers in Bendigo from 1895.

The firm traded at the 1311 Sturt Street site until a new funeral home and chapel was built on the corner of Darling Street and Pleasant Street South in October of 1996. For 20 years the funeral home provided a modern funeral chapel and facilities for the families of Ballarat. On October 24, 2016, Simon Mulqueen, the then owner of F.W. Barnes and Son, sold the oldest of Ballarat"s funeral homes to a private investment company.

Under the management of Simon Dwyer, former Ballarat resident, and the staff at F.W. Barnes the tradition of quality service and attention to detail continues. This brief look into the history of F.W. Barnes and Son, one of the leading Ballarat funeral homes, is only a snippet of all that has come and gone. But we look forward to guiding F.W. Barnes and Son Funeral Directors of Ballarat into a new era of service to the families of this area.

Please contact our funeral parlour if you"d like more information about our history or for information about funeral arrangements and Meet the caring and compassionate staff members at leading Ballarat funeral home F.W. Barnes and Son Funeral Directors. Undertakers with F.W. Barnes and Son and its predecessors have been helping with funeral arrangements in Ballarat since 1895.

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