Victoria is the only Australian jurisdiction where a will can be both signed electronically and witnessed over a video link — but only if one of your witnesses is a lawyer or justice of the peace, and everyone is in Victoria on the same day. Victoria has also abolished the old rule that voided a gift to a witness.
Three things about witnessing a will are genuinely different in Victoria from other parts of Australia, and they are the three that cost families money. This page covers those. For the parts that are the same everywhere — who is allowed to witness, and the mechanics of signing — see who can witness a will and how to sign a will correctly.
Victoria has abolished the old interested-witness rule. Under section 11 of the Wills Act 1997 (Vic), a person is not disqualified from taking a benefit under a will merely because they — or their spouse or domestic partner — witnessed it.
So if your daughter witnesses your will in VIC and you have left her the house, she keeps the house.
The same signature in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania or the Northern Territory would destroy that gift. Identical will, identical family, opposite outcome — decided entirely by which side of a state border the document was signed on. That is why generic advice on this point is dangerous, in either direction.
We still say don't do it. Abolishing the rule removed a technical trap; it did not remove an evidential one. If the person standing over you while you signed is also the person who did unusually well out of the document, you have handed any disappointed relative the easiest undue-influence argument there is. The gift is not void — it is merely contestable, and contested at the estate's expense.
Victoria is one of only two Australian jurisdictions where a will can lawfully be witnessed over a video link. The authority is section 8A of the Wills Act 1997 (Vic), the remote execution procedure.
Victoria has the most developed remote signing rules in the country, set out as a formal remote execution procedure in section 8A. It is genuinely available, but it is not casual: one of your two witnesses must be a special witness, meaning an Australian legal practitioner or a justice of the peace, and that person signs last. Everything must happen on the same day and everyone involved must be physically located within Victoria. The will must also carry a statement confirming it was signed using the remote execution procedure. Victoria is the only state that permits both remote witnessing and an electronic signature on a will.
Two warnings, because this is where people come unstuck. First, the conditions are not optional — a video signing that misses one of them is not a validly executed will, and you are back to asking the Supreme Court of Victoria to rescue it. Second, being permitted is not the same as being sensible. If you can get two adults into a room, do that instead. Remote witnessing exists for people who genuinely cannot, and it adds requirements rather than removing them.
The full text is at section 8A of the Wills Act 1997 (Vic), the remote execution procedure. In the other six Australian jurisdictions there is no equivalent provision at all, so a will witnessed by video there is simply not validly executed.
This one surprises almost everybody, and it varies more between states than any other rule about wills.
In Victoria, a family provision claim — an application by someone who says they were not adequately provided for — must be brought within 6 months of the grant of probate, under section 99 of the Administration and Probate Act 1958 (Vic).
Victoria's six month window runs from the grant of probate, not from the date of death, so the clock does not start until the estate is formally in the executor's hands.
Notice that there are two variables here, not one. The length of the window differs — Tasmania allows three months, New South Wales and the Northern Territory allow twelve. And the starting point differs: in New South Wales and Queensland the clock runs from the date of death, while in the other six jurisdictions it runs from the grant of probate or administration. Two estates with identical facts can have deadlines many months apart depending purely on where the person lived.
Every court can extend time at its discretion, and sometimes does. But an extension is a discretion, not an entitlement — the court will weigh how strong the claim is, whether beneficiaries would be prejudiced, how good the explanation for the delay is, and crucially whether the estate has already been distributed. Once the money is out the door, the practical answer is usually no.
Why does this belong on a page about witnessing? Because a badly witnessed will is the single easiest thing to attack, and it puts your estate into exactly this timeline. A properly executed will proves itself and is administered quietly. A defective one invites an application, and in VIC your family will be working to a 6 months clock while they sort it out.
The formal requirements in Victoria are:
The mechanics of doing that correctly — the order of signing, whether to initial every page, dating, and how to handle a change — are the same in every state and are set out in how to sign a will correctly. Who is eligible to act as a witness is likewise national: see who can witness a will.
The Supreme Court of Victoria has a dispensing power under section 9 of the Wills Act 1997 (Vic), letting it admit a document that fails the formal requirements if satisfied the deceased intended it to operate as their will.
If the court is not satisfied, the will is set aside entirely and Part IA of the Administration and Probate Act 1958 (Vic) decides who inherits. In Victoria that means your surviving partner takes the first $591,390 (statutory legacy) and the balance is shared with your children — a figure that reset every financial year. A ten-minute signing error can therefore redirect the entire estate — see who inherits if there is no valid will in VIC.
There is a cost dimension too. Victoria charges on a sliding scale based on the gross value of the estate. Estates under $250,000 pay no filing fee, which is the most generous nil threshold in the country, but the top of the scale is also the steepest — an estate worth $7 million or more attracts a fee of $17,770.80. A nil fee does not mean probate is not required.
Their gift survives. section 11 of the Wills Act 1997 (Vic) means a person is not disqualified from taking a benefit merely because they witnessed the will. We still advise against it, because it makes the will easier to attack on undue influence. The answer would be the opposite in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, where the gift fails.
Yes. Victoria is one of only two Australian jurisdictions that permit it, under section 8A of the Wills Act 1997 (Vic), the remote execution procedure. The conditions are strict and must all be met, so read them before relying on a video signing.
6 months from the grant of probate, under section 99 of the Administration and Probate Act 1958 (Vic). The court can extend that period, but it is a discretion and not something to count on — particularly once the estate has been distributed.
Victoria charges on a sliding scale based on the gross value of the estate. Estates under $250,000 pay no filing fee, which is the most generous nil threshold in the country, but the top of the scale is also the steepest — an estate worth $7 million or more attracts a fee of $17,770.80. A nil fee does not mean probate is not required. These are court fees only, and exclude any solicitor or trustee company charges. Figures are as at FY2026-27 and most jurisdictions re-index on 1 July, so check the current VIC schedule before relying on a number.
Victoria is the most digitally advanced jurisdiction for wills in Australia. It is the only state where a will can be electronically signed as well as remotely witnessed, under the formal remote execution procedure in section 8A. It also abolished the interested witness rule, so a gift to someone who witnessed your will still stands here, unlike in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Its statutory legacy of $591,390 is second only to New South Wales, and its nil probate fee threshold of $250,000 is the most generous in the country.
No — there is no register and no notary requirement anywhere in Australia, including Victoria. A correctly signed and witnessed will is valid on its own, including one prepared online: see whether an online will is legally valid in Australia.