About

The Skinner family took over as Moonta’s undertakers from the Hosking family in 1926. At the time the Hosking family and the Skinner family were neighbours in the main street of Moonta, with the Hosking family being the towns undertaker and the Skinner family being the towns carpenter.

Mr Hosking suddenly died, so Mrs. Hosking asked for much needed neighbourly help from the Skinner family. Ewart Tennyson Skinner never envisaged himself as an undertaker, but to help a neighbour out Ewart and his wife Ida Skinner began their journey in the funeral industry, taking over as the town undertakers and carpenters simultaneously under the name E T Skinner & Son, serving the community until Ewart’s death in 1956.

After Ewart’s passing his son Leonard ‘Mostyn’ Skinner, along with his wife Joan became the next generation of the Skinner family to work as an undertaker in Moonta. They continued to operate both businesses simultaneously, as well as purchasing the companies first hearse, a retrofitted black 1938 Packard Model 1610A. Mostyn and Joan oversaw the building of a new custom residence with attached Chapel in 1973-74, and served the community with distinction until Mostyn’s sudden death in 1980, aged 53 years.

Shortly before Mostyn’s death the family business grew with the purchase of another funeral business in Maitland from the Adams family, as well as the purchase of a black 1977 Ford wagon which was modified into a hearse in Port Adelaide complete with an LTD front and came to the family to be fitted out in 1979.

Leonard’s son Mostyn ‘Paul’ Skinner had begun helping his parents in the funeral business at 16 years of age, becoming the third generation of funeral director in the Skinner family. Paul helped his father Mostyn to fit out the Ford LTD Hearse, a job that he finished himself after his father’s passing. Together with his wife Helen, Paul made the decision to focus solely on being a funeral director, shutting down the family’s carpentry business and changing the name from E. T. Skinner and Son to Skinner Family Funerals.

Paul and Helen expanded the funeral business further with the purchase of another well-known funeral business from Phil Seeley at Kadina in 2002. This purchase included a residence, funeral chapel, office and mortuary at Kadina, and the Skinner Family has continued to operate Seeley Funerals as a separate brand ever since.

This growth allowed the fourth generation of funeral directors from the Skinner family to join the company, with their youngest son Tim joining in the business in 1997 and their middle son Andrew joining in 2004, along with his wife Claire in 2009. As a family they oversaw the commissioning of the first BF Ford Falcon Hearse in Australia in 2007 in the family company colour of Maroon.

With Paul’s passing in 2014, Helen, Andrew and Tim took over running the company. They oversaw an expansion of the Ewart Tennyson chapel and the creation of the Mostyn Paul lounge at the Frances Tce premises which opened in 2017. They also acquired land at North Moonta and undertook the planning and construction of a purpose built crematorium facility.

In 2021 Helen, Andrew and Claire opened the Yorke Peninsula and Mid North’s first crematorium – Central Region Crematorium – as well as continuing to operate Skinner Family Funerals and Seeley Funerals. With a dedicated and caring team, we are honoured to help our community celebrate the life of their loved ones with dignity and respect.