Most wills that fail do not fail because of what they say. They fail at the signing table — wrong order, witnesses not in the room together, a page initialled by nobody. The good news is that correct execution takes about five minutes and costs nothing. Here is exactly how to do it.
Every Australian state and territory asks for the same three things. The wording of the legislation differs, and the section numbers differ, but the substance is identical:
That is the whole test. Everything else in this guide is about doing those three things in a way that cannot be argued with later.
Order matters, and getting it wrong is a real defect rather than a technicality.
The reason the order is not negotiable comes back to what a witness is actually doing. A witness is attesting that they saw you sign. A witness who signs before you have signed is attesting to something that has not happened yet. It is not a paperwork quibble — it undermines the only thing their signature means.
This is the single phrase doing the heavy lifting in every Australian wills statute, and the most common way a homemade will comes unstuck.
It means both witnesses are in the room, aware of what is happening, and able to see you sign, at the same moment.
What does not satisfy it:
The test is practical, not ceremonial: could each witness actually see the signature being made? If the honest answer is no, the requirement is not met.
There is one genuine exception, and it is narrow. New South Wales and Victoria both permit witnessing over an audio-visual link, where "present" is satisfied by a live video connection rather than physical presence. Both attach conditions — Victoria requires one witness to be a lawyer or justice of the peace, and everyone to be in Victoria on the same day. In the other six jurisdictions there is no such option, and a will witnessed by video is not validly executed.
Strictly, the law generally requires your signature at the end of the will rather than on every page. A will signed only at the end is validly executed.
Do it anyway.
Signing or initialling each page — with both witnesses doing the same, in the same session — makes it enormously harder for anybody to later suggest that a page was swapped, removed or added. It costs thirty seconds. Contested-estate litigation costs tens of thousands of dollars. This is the cheapest insurance in estate planning.
Use the same pen throughout, and keep the pages fastened together as they were when signed.
A date is not usually a strict condition of validity. Leave it out anyway at your peril.
A will revokes earlier wills. If two documents surface and nobody can establish which was signed later, the estate has a genuine and expensive problem. Date the will on the day it is actually signed — not the day it was drafted, not the day you first read it.
In rough order of how often they come up:
Every Australian jurisdiction allows a will to be signed by another person at your direction and in your presence if you are physically unable to sign. This covers arthritis, injury, weakness in the final stages of an illness.
Two points to get right. The direction must come from you, and you must be there when it is done. And the person who signs on your behalf should not also act as one of your witnesses — they are performing your signature, so they cannot also be an independent observer of it.
Some jurisdictions also allow a mark rather than a full signature, provided it is made by you and intended as your signature. If your capacity to sign is genuinely in question, get a solicitor involved; this is exactly the situation where a challenge is most likely.
The will does not automatically become worthless. But it stops being a will that proves itself, and that is a much worse position than most people realise.
Every Australian jurisdiction has a dispensing power — a provision allowing the Supreme Court to admit a document as a will even though it was not properly executed, if the court is satisfied the deceased intended it to operate as their will. Courts do use it, and use it reasonably often.
But understand what relying on it actually means for your family:
That is a safety net, not a plan. The whole point of executing a will correctly is that your family never has to go near a courtroom.
How readily a court will step in, and under which section, does differ by jurisdiction. Your state's page has the specific provision — pick it from the wills by state hub.
Short answer: assume you cannot, unless you are in Victoria.
Victoria is the only Australian state that permits a will to be electronically signed, and only inside its formal remote execution procedure with a lawyer or JP as one witness. New South Wales permits remote witnessing over video but still requires a traditional wet-ink signature on the document. The remaining six jurisdictions require a handwritten signature on paper, witnessed in person.
Be careful with anything you read from 2020 to 2022. Most states brought in temporary pandemic measures and then let them lapse — Queensland's ended on 29 April 2022, the ACT's on 31 December 2022, South Australia's became obsolete in September 2021. A great deal of online guidance still describes those expired rules as though they were current.
It means both witnesses must be in the room, aware of what is happening, and able to see you sign, at the same moment. Signing at the kitchen table on Monday with one witness and catching the other at work on Tuesday does not satisfy it. The whole event happens once, with everyone there.
Strictly, the law generally requires your signature at the end of the will rather than on every page. But signing or initialling each page, with your witnesses doing the same, is standard practice for a good reason: it makes it far harder for anyone to suggest a page was swapped, removed or added later.
You sign first, while both witnesses watch. Then each witness signs while you and ideally the other witness are still present. A witness cannot attest a signature they have not yet seen made, so a witness signing before the will-maker is a genuine defect.
A date is not usually a strict condition of validity, but leave it out at your peril. If there are two wills and nobody can prove which came later, the estate has a real problem. Always date the will on the day it is actually signed.
Do not do this. An alteration to a will generally needs to be signed and witnessed with the same formality as the will itself. An unsigned crossing-out can leave it unclear whether a gift was revoked or the change simply fails, which is exactly the ambiguity a will is meant to prevent. Make a fresh will instead.
Almost never. Victoria is the only state that permits a will to be electronically signed, and only under its formal remote execution procedure. New South Wales permits remote witnessing over video but still requires a wet-ink signature. Everywhere else, a will must be signed by hand on paper.
The will does not automatically become worthless, but it stops being a will that proves itself. Someone must apply to the Supreme Court asking it to be admitted as an informal will, which means a court application, legal costs, delay measured in months, and no guarantee of success. That is a safety net, not a plan.
Yes. Every Australian jurisdiction allows a will to be signed by another person at your direction, in your presence, if you are physically unable to sign. It must be done at your direction and while you are there. That person should not also act as one of your witnesses.
eQUILL is a document preparation service, not a law firm, and this guide is general information, not legal advice. A court's willingness to excuse a signing defect differs between states and territories; for advice about your circumstances, see a solicitor.