Guide II of V · Department of Health and the cemetery trusts
Cremation approval and repatriation letters
In Victoria a cremation needs an approval first, and it can come from the cemetery trust that provides the cremation, as long as the documents the Cemeteries and Crematoria Act 2003 asks for can be supplied. When they cannot, the application may go to the Department of Health instead, and the same department writes the repatriation letters that foreign embassies usually want before remains leave the state.
General information, not legal advice. The places to check are the cemetery trust and the Department of Health’s cemeteries and crematoria pages; for a death that may be reportable, the Coroners Court of Victoria. Every page used here is named under Sources, at the end of this page.
Why the approval comes first
Cremating bodily remains without a cremation approval, or helping someone to, is an offence. It carries a maximum of 600 penalty units or five years in prison, or the two together.
Applications carry a range of documentation requirements under the Act and the Cemeteries and Crematoria Regulations 2025. A trust that is satisfied with an application must grant the approval, and it should confirm the cremation authorisation in writing. The application itself can come from the applicant or from someone acting for them, a funeral director for example.
Which form, for which remains
The Department of Health’s cremations page sets out a separate path for each kind of remains.
| Remains | Form | What else is needed |
|---|---|---|
| Bodily remains, including a still-born child and a child born alive who dies within 28 days of birth | Form 5, a mandatory prescribed form | In most cases Form 6 as well. Form 6 is not required for a still-born child, a death a coroner investigated, a death outside Victoria, or bodily remains with an identifier. |
| Bodily remains with an identifier, such as a cadaver imported for surgical teaching | Form 9 | The department’s written approval, sought before the form goes to the trust and attached to it. |
| Body parts, foetal remains included, with an identifier or container reference number, such as museum specimens or unused parts from a tissue bank | Form 10 | The department publishes a separate guide to applying with this form. |
| Body parts that are not foetal remains | Form 7 | Prescribed information from a prescribed person. |
| Foetal remains that are not a still-born child | Form 8 | Prescribed information from a prescribed person. |
When the Department of Health decides
A trust handed an application that cannot meet the Act’s documentation requirements should refer the applicant to the department. From there the department’s cremation approval page describes this course.
The grounds
Where special circumstances are why the documents cannot be supplied, the application is made under section 134 of the Act.
Who handles it
Usually a funeral director, who deals with the department and any other authorities and organisations for the applicant.
Sending it
Applications go to the department by email, at statutoryapprovals.cemeteries@health.vic.gov.au. Any document in a foreign language has to come with a certified translation of the original.
The coroner’s question
The department works out whether the death is reportable under the Coroners Act, and while a notified reportable death awaits a coroner’s determination, it gives no approval. A funeral director without properly authorised documents for a death interstate or overseas is asked to talk it over with the Coroners Court of Victoria’s Coronial Admissions and Enquiries line, 1300 309 519.
Waiting
The department sets no fixed time, because each case turns on its circumstances and the documents available. For that reason it says not to book the cremation until its written authorisation has arrived.
To the trust
A granted approval has to reach the cemetery trust before the cremation takes place.
The family’s side of a coroner’s case is in after a death is reported to the Coroners Court of Victoria.
Repatriation letters: remains leaving Victoria
A repatriation letter is the department’s certificate that it has no objection to the remains being taken out of Victoria, and that nothing indicates an infectious disease was the direct cause of death. No Victorian law requires one; the letter exists because foreign embassies usually ask for it as part of their own approval of a repatriation.
Either a member of the public or a funeral director can ask. According to the department’s repatriations page, the request is made by emailing these to statutoryapprovals.cemeteries@health.vic.gov.au:
- an email to the manager of Permits and Licensing asking for a repatriation letter to be issued;
- the death certificate from the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages;
- a doctor’s certificate saying an infectious disease was not the direct cause of death, or instead the Coroners Court of Victoria’s Order for Release of Body, where it states that nothing points to an infectious disease, for the purpose of repatriation overseas.
The department asks for the documents at least 48 hours ahead where that is possible, and once every requirement is met it emails the letter to whoever asked for it. For cremated remains, the papers should include a certificate of cremation and a death certificate. Remains coming the other way, into Australia, are a federal matter: the same page directs every such enquiry, whatever the person’s nationality, to the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Where a coroner is investigating, the Coroners Court of Victoria describes an interim death certificate for exactly this purpose: it is used when the person is being repatriated to their own country, and can be issued before the cause of death is established. Ordering certificates in the ordinary way is covered in registration with Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria.
Sources for this page
Each sentence above draws on one of these official pages, read again on 9 October 2026.