Australians are getting bigger and the funeral industry is having to make changes to accommodate the nation's growing girth.

Hospitals have already modified furniture and fittings to accommodate the needs of larger patients, and now the national obesity epidemic is driving change in the funeral and cemetery sectors.

Coffins are larger, cremators have bigger openings, and graves are sometimes widened to accommodate larger bodies.

Australasian Cemeteries and Crematoria Association president Darryl Thomas said the nation's widening girth was affecting most aspects of his industry.

"Everything needed to handle our increasing weight … equipment used by ambulances, hospitals and funeral directors, and finally cemeteries and crematoria has to get bigger," he said.

Mr Thomas said a standard coffin was 650 millimetres wide, but that could be increased to 700mm, and graves can be broadened to 900mm.

But there is a shortage of burial plots and memorial sites in some metropolitan areas, and Mr Thomas said larger graves could add to that problem.

"And as coffins get bigger, other issues have to be addressed," he said.

"Bigger coffins are heavier and workers' health and safety have to be considered.

"Firms are using stronger equipment to lower coffins into graves or transfer them to cremators."

Mr Thomas said cemeteries were also installing bigger cremators.

Larger cremators are being required as Australians' waistlines expand. ( ABC Gold Coast: Karin Adam )

Equipment size grows with population

Invocare is one firm that has needed to embraced such changes.

It recently installed two cremators with the widest available openings at its property, Allambe Memorial Park, on the Gold Coast.

Andrew Dreghorn has to keep an eye on equipment to ensure it is fit for purpose. ( ABC Gold Coast: Charmaine Kane )

Invocare manager of cemeteries and crematoria Andrew Dreghorn said it was important to ensure the equipment the company bought was fit for purpose.

The business's equipment carries coffins weighing up to 500 kilograms rather than the standard 300kg.

Mr Dreghorn said the aim was to cater for every need, but most coffins could be accommodated in standard-sized plots.

"In the last 20 years our staff would have had only a couple of discussions about the need for an extra plot to accommodate a particular coffin," he said.

Nonetheless, the company is developing an extra 11 hectares of land at its Nerang site to accommodate future burials and memorials.

Costs in life as well as death need to be considered

Expansion works are underway at Allambe Memorial Park on the Gold Coast to cater for future demand. ( ABC Gold Coast: Charmaine Kane )

The latest statistics from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show more than 11 million people — about 63 per cent of the population — were overweight or obese in 2014-15, and authorities expect those numbers to grow.

The Australian Bariatric Innovations Group, which represents workers in the health and funeral industries, said the public needed to be better educated about all the consequences of obesity, and communication between the health and funeral sectors needed to be improved.

Director Janet Hope said employees from a funeral business sometimes arrived at a hospital or aged care facility unprepared for the work they were required to do.

"They might bring too few staff, or a vehicle that's too small, to accommodate the deceased," she said.

Ms Hope has also called for patients and their families to be better educated about the ultimate consequence and cost of extreme obesity.

She said printed booklets explaining the impact of extreme obesity should be made widely available in medical practices.

"That would provoke discussions that could alert people to issues they need to consider," she said.

Ms Hope said the booklets could relieve health and funeral workers of the need to discuss challenging and painful subjects with people at some of the most difficult times in their lives.

"If a booklet brings it out in the open, there's an opportunity for questions," she said.