Our Story

Entrusting the care of your beloved family member to a stranger is a big deal. At Pet Rest Cremations, we don’t take this responsibility lightly and completely understand how difficult it can be. You can learn more about each team member in our profiles section, so you know exactly who you are speaking to and put a face to the name.

The business ‘Pet Rest Cremations’ was started in 1997 in a little building within the grounds of the Sunshine Coast Animal Refuge. Virginia and Phil Watson purchased Pet Rest in 2005. Virginia had a lifetime career in aged and disability services, community service and welfare and applied this knowledge to supporting families through the loss of a beloved pet.

We began with two staff and have grown into a team of highly skilled and knowledgeable people. As a small family business we are now able to employ 9 wonderful team members. We are all dedicated to the care of pets and their families. One of our core values is family first and we all have young families of our own. We all support one another to work around family commitments. The Sunshine Coast community has supported Pet Rest Cremations to be in the position where we are able to have such an experienced team and allowed us to provide flexible employment for everyone. We can’t thank you enough for this ♥

Virginia and Phil set about to upgrade all of our facilities and equipment. An extension was added 10 years ago to serve as a separate office and in 2018 we added a ‘proper’ office to the front of our building. We have also added a new second furnace and a mortuary room. We have our own engraving machine and writing machine. We also upgraded our little blue PT Cruiser (some may remember her!) to two lovely Toyoka Rukus’. The new vehicles offer a comfortable travel for your darling that always has soft bedding, silks and blankets to keep them safe. The cars have been sign written to reflect the Sunshine Coast, one with beach scene to represent our incredible coast, and one with flowers to signify our stunning hinterland.

Pet Rest Cremations is 100% Sunshine Coast family owned and operated. Our facility is right here in Tanawha within the grounds of the Sunshine Coast Animal Refuge. We are all Sunshine Coast locals and greatly value supporting the local community and businesses.

Caring for pets and their families isn’t a job to us, we genuinely care. Our pets are our family members too and we treat everyone who comes in to our care with the same dignity and respect and we would wish for our own.

Leave a Reply