Killer grandma must pay Vic mum $110,000

A grief-stricken mother will be paid $110,000 by a Victorian grandmother who bashed her only child to death with a hammer.

Huajioa Zhuang, 52, is serving a 22-year jail term for murder after she struck her daughter-in-law, Dan "Selina" Lin, 21, in the head with a hammer during an argument about how Ms Lin was going to bathe her son, Alfred.

Zhuang, who had been visiting her son and his wife in their Bundoora home, then put Ms Lin's body in a nylon suitcase and hid it in a neighbour's wheelie bin which she later pushed into a Melbourne creek.

The victim's mother, Shui Ying Cheng, filed an application for compensation after moving from China to Australia to care for Alfred with her late daughter's husband Rong "Peter" Ping.

"Ever since her birth, she has been my whole life," Ms Cheng said in her application to the court.

Victorian Supreme Court Justice Stephen Kaye said Ms Cheng had made significant sacrifices for her daughter and had been left with anxiety, depression and stress following Ms Lin's distressing death in 2012.

Ms Lin was born in the Fujian province of China in 1990, but was sent to Australia in 2007 while her mother went to Taiwan to work to pay for her school fees.

Since the murder, Ms Cheng has been plagued by frequent nightmares about rushing to cuddle her daughter.

She feels worthless and guilty, the court heard.

Before she died, Ms Lin had returned home to China because of the "terrible abuse" of her mother-in-law and other family members.

She was persuaded to go back to Australia by her husband, which left Ms Cheng "heartbroken" and concerned for her daughter's welfare.

"I'm still unwilling to believe that she is gone with the wind forever," Ms Cheng said in a victim impact statement.

"I always seem to hear her calling me, but all the expectations and hopes of a mother have been terribly shattered."

Justice Kaye on Friday said Ms Cheng's grief was intense, lengthy and unresolved and he ordered Zhuang to pay Ms Cheng $110,000 for the murder of Ms Lin.

Zhuang sat impassively, dressed in a jumper decorated with diamante hearts and bows during the brief hearing.