Finding a Notary in Australia When You Are Outside a Capital City

Notaries are thinner on the ground than almost any other kind of witness. Appointment is generally reserved for experienced solicitors, and those tend to practise where the legal work is — the capital cities and the larger regional centres. If you live in a country town, the nearest notary may be a long drive away.

Before you plan that drive, it is worth working through three questions in order. Quite often the answer to the first one is that you do not need a notary at all.

Question 1: do you actually need a notary?

A notary is needed for a narrow set of jobs, and most of them involve a document going overseas. For paperwork staying in Australia, a free local witness is usually what the receiving body expects:

• Statutory declarations and domestic certified copies can be witnessed or certified by a Justice of the Peace or one of the other authorised occupations on the relevant list. JPs are found in many regional towns, and several of the other categories — health practitioners, police, and so on, depending on the list — exist almost everywhere.
• Documents for the Department of Home Affairs usually need a certified copy by an authorised person, not a notary.
• Some Australian public documents going overseas — for example certificates issued by a state registry — may be able to go to DFAT for an apostille or authentication directly, with no notary involved. Confirm with DFAT before relying on this; it depends on the document.

If your document falls into one of those, a notary would add cost and a trip for no benefit. The case where a regional client genuinely needs a notary is usually a signature, copy or oath on a document that a foreign authority will receive, and that DFAT cannot authenticate without a notary's seal on it.

Question 2: where to look

There is no single national directory, so look in more than one place:

• Your state or territory's notarial society. Most jurisdictions have one, and member listings are often searchable by location.
• The law society's referral service in your state, which can point you to practitioners, including notaries, in or near your region.
• Local solicitors. A regional firm may have a notary among its partners, and if not, it will usually know where the nearest one is. Remember that a solicitor is not a notary unless separately appointed — ask the question directly.
• The nearest regional centre. Larger regional cities are far more likely to have a notary than smaller towns.

Before you travel, check the person is in fact a notary. Appointment is a matter of record with the body that made it, and a genuine notary will tell you where and when they were appointed.

Question 3: if there is no notary nearby

Make one trip do everything. Most wasted regional trips come from arriving without something. Before you go, confirm with the receiving authority exactly what it needs, then bring:

• every original document — the notary must sight originals, not photocopies or scans;
• current photo identification, and a second form if you have it;
• any document to be signed, unsigned — you must sign in front of the notary;
• the receiving authority's written instructions, including any required wording, and whether an apostille or embassy legalisation will follow.

If you are having several documents dealt with for the same matter, do them all in one appointment.

Consider a video appointment. Some notaries offer remote appointments, and for someone hundreds of kilometres away this can be the difference between a day off work and an hour. Two limits apply. First, what a notary may do over video depends on the rules where they practise, which differ between states. Second, and more important, the foreign authority receiving the document decides whether it will accept a remotely executed act. Many still expect a wet-ink signature made in the notary's physical presence. Ask them before booking.

A video appointment also does not remove the need for the notary to sight original documents. If you need certified copies, the originals will usually have to reach the notary somehow — see the next point.

Think before posting originals. If you post original documents to a notary, use a tracked service and ask how they will be returned. For irreplaceable documents, consider whether you can order a fresh certificate from the issuing registry instead of sending the only copy you hold.

Ask whether the notary will travel. Some notaries will attend outside their office, usually for an additional fee. Whether any particular notary does, and how far, is a question for them. Do not assume it is available.

Use a notary in another state if that is closer. For most notarial acts, the state a notary is appointed in does not limit whom they can act for. If the nearest notary is across a border, that is usually fine — but see Notary Public Rules in Australia: What Differs Between States and Territories for the cases where the document's own law matters.

The false economy to avoid

When the nearest notary is far away, it is tempting to have a local JP certify a document that is going overseas and hope for the best. It rarely works. A JP's certification is not backed by a specimen signature at DFAT, so it cannot be apostilled or authenticated, and a foreign authority will usually reject it. The certification cannot be upgraded afterwards either; the process starts again with the original. One trip to a notary costs less than a rejected document at a visa or settlement deadline.

Frequently asked questions

Can my local solicitor notarise my document? Only if they have also been appointed as a notary. Most solicitors have not. Ask.

Can a JP certify the copy and a notary sign it off later? No. The notary must sight the original document themselves. A JP's certified copy is not an original.

Is online notarisation accepted overseas? Some authorities accept it; many do not. The receiving authority decides, so ask before you book.

Does the notary have to be in my state? Generally no. Your residence does not limit which notary you can use.