Purpose To assess death notifications to the Victorian Audit of Surgical Mortality (VASM). Australia is unique in that all surgical deaths are supposed to be reported to the state/territory ASM to allow an independent peer review of the case. The three modes of reporting to VASM are from hospitals, the Coroner and individual surgeons. Methods The Binational Audits of Surgical Mortality (BAS) database was reviewed for mode of notification of death to VASM for the year 2023. The Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM) also monitors deaths reported to the Coroner for cases where death occurred outside a hospital but surgery appeared to have been performed within 30 days of death. This information is passed on to VASM from the Victorian Perioperative Consultative Council (VPCC). Results 1832 deaths were reported in VASM with an additional 25 cases identified by VIFM where there appeared to be a perioperative death occurring outside hospital. 1188 (64.8%) of the notifications were from hospitals, 633 (34.6%) were from the Coroner and 11 (0.6%) were directly from surgeons. Discussion The Coroner is a surprisingly common source of death notifications to VASM with very few surgeons directly reporting surgical deaths. The good lines of contact between VASM/Coroner/VPCC/VIFM are not necessarily replicated in other states/territories meaning a substantial number of surgical deaths may not be reported. The ASMs need to establish better systems to allow surgeons to easily report surgical deaths. Victorian hospitals should be encouraged to improve their reporting systems.