sorry to hear about your loss JerseyVics. My heart goes out to your family.
In regarding the flights, I have had to purchase bereavement fare on more than one occassion. I would call the airline that flies to your target airport (hoping you have some status w/ them) and ask if they have any tickets available and what the price would be for bereavement fare. This had worked for me in the past as I was able to get a reasonable fare on the next available flight(s). There is another option of using priceline (but I am not sure if you can use it from Australia) Good luck!