Dying to Know Day
On the 7th of August 2026 we are holding Dying to Know Day at Sporties, Tuncurry commencing at 10:00am Morning Tea will be provided. Guest Speakers include:
Jo Simpson: Community Palliative Care Team: John Vaughan Solicitor: Catherine O ‘Connell CNS Voluntary Assisted Dying: Paramedics and Funeral Director-how can we help.
Here are some photos from previous events:
Here are some facts about Death and Dying. (2025)
Almost 90% of Australians believe it is important to talk about their wishes and preferences for care.
Despite this, most Australians (56%) have not
undertaken any action to talk about or record
their end of life wishes (PCA Community Survey).
- Only 29% of older Australians have any type of care plan document (ACPA).
- Each day around 400 people die of a terminal illness, yet more than three in five (62%) do not receive specialist palliative care at any stage (AIHW).
- Around 183,000 people died in 2023 – most from heart disease, dementia, stroke, lung cancer, and respiratory disease (ABS).
- On average, people first receive palliative care just 15 days before death. As few as 1 in 5 people first receive palliative care three months before death (AIHW).
- Up to 90% of people say they want to be cared for at home with the appropriate supports (Agar et al 2008, Pinto et al 2024) – yet as few as 1 in 20 deaths happen at home (ABS).
- Most deaths in Australia happen in a hospital (51%) or residential aged care facility (29.5%) (ABS).
- One third of people living in residential aged care die each year – that’s over 60,000 people each year (AIHW).
- It’s conservatively estimated! 92% of people who die in residential aged care would benefit from palliative care (Humphrey et al 2024), but (as of June 2023) just 0.1% of people living in residential aged care had entered to receive palliative care (AIHW).
- The number of people aged 85 years and over more than triples over the next seven years, from 20,336 people in 2024 to 66,222 people in 2032 (ABS).
- People in rural and regional communities miss out on palliative care more often because only 16% of the specialist palliative medicine doctors, and 28% of palliative care nurses live and work in rural and regional areas (AIHW).
- Around 29,000 children and young people are currently living with a life-limiting condition in Australia (Paediatric Palliative Care National Action Plan).
- Less than half (46%) of all children who died in 2021 with a life-limiting condition received specialist paediatric palliative care (AIHW).
- Children from regional and remote areas tend to not live as long as, and die at a younger age than children from major cities (AIHW).
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more likely than non-Indigenous people to live with, and die of, some terminal illnesses (AIHW).