Western Australia is one of the six Australian jurisdictions where a will cannot be witnessed over a video link — everyone must be physically in the same room. On the other hand, WA has abolished the old rule that voided a gift to a witness, and it charges one of the lowest probate filing fees in the country at a flat $408.
Three things about witnessing a will are genuinely different in Western Australia 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.
Western Australia has abolished the old interested-witness rule. A beneficiary is not disqualified from acting as a witness, and their gift is not cancelled simply because they signed as a witness.
So if your daughter witnesses your will in WA 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.
No. In Western Australia a will cannot be witnessed over Zoom, FaceTime or any other video link. You and both witnesses must be physically together, in the same room, when the will is signed. The requirement sits in section 8 of the Wills Act 1970 (WA).
Western Australia never introduced permanent legislation allowing wills to be signed or witnessed electronically, and it did not put temporary pandemic rules in place for succession documents either. That means the traditional requirement still applies in full: you and both witnesses must be physically together, in the same room, watching each other sign. A will witnessed over Zoom or FaceTime in Western Australia is not validly executed, and the family would have to ask the Supreme Court to admit it as an informal will under section 32.
This matters more than it sounds, because New South Wales and Victoria do permit it — and a great deal of the advice you will find online was either written for those two states or written during the pandemic, when the rules were temporarily different in more places. An article that says "you can now witness a will by video call in Australia" is not describing Western Australia today.
If a will is signed by video link in WA, it is not validly executed. It is not automatically worthless — someone can ask the Supreme Court of Western Australia to admit it as an informal will under section 32 of the Wills Act 1970 (WA) — but that means a Supreme Court application, legal costs out of the estate, months of delay, and no guarantee. Get two people into the room.
This one surprises almost everybody, and it varies more between states than any other rule about wills.
In Western Australia, 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 7 of the Family Provision Act 1972 (WA).
Western Australia's six month window runs from the grant of probate or administration rather than from the date of death.
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 WA your family will be working to a 6 months clock while they sort it out.
The formal requirements in Western Australia 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 Western Australia has a dispensing power under section 32 of the Wills Act 1970 (WA), 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 the Administration Act 1903 (WA) decides who inherits. In Western Australia that means your surviving partner takes the first $472,000 (spouse's entitlement) and the balance is shared with your children — a figure that set by ministerial order rather than automatic indexation. A ten-minute signing error can therefore redirect the entire estate — see who inherits if there is no valid will in WA.
There is a cost dimension too. Western Australia charges a flat filing fee of $408.00 for an application for a grant of probate or administration, effective from 1 July 2025, regardless of the size of the estate. That is one of the lowest probate filing fees in the country — roughly a quarter of what the Northern Territory charges.
Their gift survives. 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.
No. Western Australia has no provision permitting a will to be witnessed by audio-visual link, so everyone must be physically present. Only New South Wales and Victoria allow it. Advice suggesting otherwise is either written for those states or describes pandemic-era rules that have since lapsed.
6 months from the grant of probate, under section 7 of the Family Provision Act 1972 (WA). The court can extend that period, but it is a discretion and not something to count on — particularly once the estate has been distributed.
Western Australia charges a flat filing fee of $408.00 for an application for a grant of probate or administration, effective from 1 July 2025, regardless of the size of the estate. That is one of the lowest probate filing fees in the country — roughly a quarter of what the Northern Territory charges. These are court fees only, and exclude any solicitor or trustee company charges. Figures are as at fees effective 1 July 2025 and most jurisdictions re-index on 1 July, so check the current WA schedule before relying on a number.
Western Australia runs its own race on succession law, and in two respects it is more forgiving than the eastern states. A gift to someone who witnessed your will still stands here, where in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory it would be void. Its flat probate fee of $408 is a quarter of the Northern Territory's $1,585, and there is no sliding scale to worry about. But WA has not modernised signing: unlike New South Wales and Victoria, a will still has to be witnessed with everyone physically present.
No — there is no register and no notary requirement anywhere in Australia, including Western Australia. 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.