Looking through last Will and Testament documents are a good source of information on descendants, property and locations.
At some stage almost all Wills must pass through the Australia Court system and thus become an official court record to be stored in perpetuity. Where no Will has been left (intestate estates) usually next of kin apply for estate administration, documents of which also complement the official records. Many early Wills are now online in index of full document form. Also, this list has links to inquest documents and coroners reports.
Jump to:
- Australian Capital Territory
- Queensland
- New South Wales
- Victoria
- Western Australia
- South Australia
- Tasmania
- Northern Territory
- National
Australian Capital Territory
Queensland
Queensland Archives has compiled indexes of their archival records. Use these links to get to the page and search the index database by name.
- Equity files 1857-1899
- Instruments of renunciation 1915-1983
- Justices of the Peace 1857-1957
- Trustee files 1889-1929
- Wills 1857-1940
- Wills 1857 to 1900
- Inquests 1859 - 1905 (digital)
- Inquests 1859 - 1905 (non-digital)
- Probate in the Queensland Courts
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New South Wales
- Deceased estates index 1880-1958
- Coroners' inquests index 1796-1824
- Inquest index 1851, 1916-1963
- Intestate estates index 1821-1913
- Probate records - supplementary index 1790-1875
- Probate registry
Victoria
- Will and Probate Records - Search for people who may have had estates that went through the probate process in the Supreme Court of Victoria. Records 1841-1925 can be viewed online, records 1926 onwards can be ordered to view at North Melbourne
- Supreme Court of Victoria - Probate Registers - Application Index Search
- Supreme Court of Victoria - Probate Registers - Caveat Index Search
- Supreme Court of Victoria - Probate Registers - Wills Index Search
- Probate Online Advertising System - From September 2009, advertisements of an applicant's intention to apply for Probate and Administration must be published on this website.
- State Trustees - there are no online records to search here, however you can call them to enquire as to whether they are administering a deceased estate.
- Fire inquest records (1858-1940)
- Inquests into deaths (deposition files 1840-1985)
- Melbourne admittance books (1931-1959)
- Post-mortem investigation records [body cards] (1959-1985)
Western Australia
- State Records Office of Western Australia - archives
- Probate search - eCourts portal of the WA Supreme Court
- Public Trustees The Public Trustee is responsible for some deceased estate administration where the beneficiaries are unknown
- Coroner's Court of Western Australia The WA Coroners Court is responsible for deaths reported to the Coroner, autopsies and inquests. Note prior to 1976 Coroners inquests in Western Australia were destroyed after 10 years
- Dead Reckoning - some links to guide you to historical inquest records. Browse this site also for Wills & Letters of Administration, Deceased Estates, Executions, Intestacy etc
South Australia
Some useful websites dedicated to South Australian history are now defunct, making it difficult to search for records online. The South Australian official archives are also not online however some of their records exist on third party sites such as FamilySearch and Ancestry (both require logins). We are endeavouring to expand our South Australian online records collection at our data site, Gendata.com.au - please visit regularly as we expand our SA collection - it's free and does not require an account. In the meantime you may find the following sites useful.
- The Manning Index of South Australian History The Index contains many thousands of references to South Australian newspaper and magazine stories for the years 1837 to 1937. It also includes extensive selected text from the indexed publications, other primary and secondary sources and numerous extracts from Mr Manning's own writings.
Tasmania
- Probate search The Tasmanian Supreme Court Probate Registry deals with all applications for Grants of Probate and Administration of deceased estates in Tasmania.
- Inquests held in the archives
- Wills held in the archives
Northern Territory
The Nothern Territory Department of Arts and Museums is responsible for the Northern Territory Archives. A list of collections in the archive is available for download in PDF format (warning: 250+ pages) which can then be searched offline. The archives can also be searced online using the "Archives Navigator" service although it is not straight forward and no indexes are available.
National
[Last update August 2024]
