You've told your family what you want. Cremation, not burial. A gathering in the garden, not a church hall. No black clothing. You've said it out loud, maybe more than once, and you assume that settles it.
It doesn't, not on its own.
What the law says in Victoria
In 2016, the Victorian Law Reform Commission reviewed this exact question, after a family came to them following a dispute over where a loved one's ashes should be scattered.
The Commission recommended changing the law to let Victorians leave binding funeral and burial instructions, and its report was tabled in State Parliament in February 2017.
Those recommendations were never adopted. The current position in Victoria is the one the Commission was trying to change. A person's funeral and burial directions are not legally binding, even when they're written into a will.
The Commission's own report describes the executor as having near-absolute discretion over what happens instead. You can read the Commission's report and its recommendations if you want the full detail.
Your wishes are a strong guide for whoever is acting on your behalf. They aren't a legal instruction.
The position is different in other states, and detailed enough that it's worth checking with a solicitor rather than relying on a general summary. If you live outside Victoria, that's the more reliable starting point.
Understanding why wishes get missed
Nobody sets out to ignore what you wanted. A few things can make this harder.
- Grief compresses time. A family has days, sometimes hours, to agree on a venue, a service style, a guest list and a budget, all while absorbing a loss.
- Instructions get remembered differently. One parent said "nothing fancy" to one child and "I'd love a proper send off" to another. Without a document both can point to, everyone is working from memory, and memory bends under stress.
- Cost gets in the way. A family might know you wanted a particular kind of ceremony and still settle for something smaller, because nobody arranged the budget for it while you were alive to ask.
The common thread isn't a lack of care. It's a decision that was talked about but never actually settled.
Read more: How to plan a celebration of life in Australia
Making your wishes clear enough to follow
A written note helps. A conversation adds context. Both work best paired with something more concrete: a plan that's already designed, so there's less left to interpret later.
At Mornington Green, the Life Celebration Package works this way. It's one practical way to remove that ambiguity. You sit down with a Legacy Planner and settle the details in advance, rather than leaving them to be worked out by your family later.
- Where it happens. The ceremony takes place in the gardens or in Magnolia House, for up to 15 guests.
- What it includes. Catering, event hire and the ceremony itself, arranged as one package.
- What the ash infusion looks like. Planned with you beforehand, not interpreted by your family on the day.
- Who looks after the tree afterward. Ongoing care is already covered, so there's no question later about who maintains it or pays for it.
Your family's job on the day is to show up, not to guess.
Read more: Memorial Service vs Celebration of Life: Which Is Right for You?
This October
The Life Celebration Package comes included with a Living Legacy Tree reservation this month, valued at $7,650, along with 50% off ongoing Tree Care. The offer applies to new tree reservations made during October, and terms apply.
The part that matters most has nothing to do with the discount. It's that the whole day gets decided in advance, by you, instead of pieced together later by people doing their best to remember what you wanted.
Where to start
- Talk to your family about what you want, even though that conversation isn't binding on its own in Victoria.
- Write it down and tell your executor where to find it.
- Design the celebration itself with a Legacy Planner, so the details aren't left for later.
- Ask what happens to the Living Legacy Tree and the ceremony if your plans change.
Book an open day to walk the gardens and see what a fully designed celebration looks like before deciding anything.
