Hi
I noticed the other day that Ancestry has
"Australia, Newspaper Vital Notices, 1841-2001"
With a bit of a fiddle you can access the SMH and the Age. The SMH goes up to Feb 2002. I have found that the Notices are not all indexed, however if you know the date of the newspaper you are after, ( by using Ryerson ) you can find the notice .
Just like the old days, when you visited the library and put the microfilm in the reader and rolled thru the various issues of the newspaper until you found the date you where after and then looked for the Death / Funeral Notices.
Regards
Cass