Search this question online and you will find people answering it with total confidence in both directions. One says a parent can move wherever they like. Another says it is illegal to move at all. A third says you can move anywhere within your state but not across the border.
None of that is quite right, and the confidence is the dangerous part, because acting on it can cost you your children’s living arrangements and a great deal of money.
Here is how relocation actually works in Australian family law.
The Question Is Not Really About Legality
People frame this as whether moving is allowed, which sends them looking for a rule that does not exist in the form they expect.
The better question is what the other parent can do about it, and what a court will do if asked. Because whatever your situation, the other parent can apply to the court, and a court can make orders restraining a relocation or requiring a child to live in a particular area.
So the practical position is less about permission and more about risk. If you move and the other parent objects, you may find yourself ordered to bring the child back, and you will have handed the other side a point about your judgement that lasts for the rest of the case.
What Counts As Relocation
This surprises people. Relocation is not defined by distance. What matters is the effect of the move on the child’s ability to spend time with the other parent.
A move across the country is obviously relocation. A move to the far side of a large city can also be relocation if it makes a midweek night or a school pickup impossible. Moving three hours up the coast almost certainly is.
The test is practical rather than geographic. Does this change the relationship the child has with their other parent.
The Test The Court Applies
The Child’s Best Interests Come First
Every parenting decision in Australian family law runs through one principle. The best interests of the child are the paramount consideration.
That means the court is not weighing your right to live where you choose against the other parent’s right to see the children. Both of those matter, but neither is the question. The question is what arrangement serves this particular child.
There is no presumption for or against relocation. There is no rule that the primary carer can move, and no rule that they cannot.
What Changed In May 2024
If you are working from older information, be careful. Changes commencing on 6 May 2024 removed the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility and replaced the previous list of best interests factors with a new set.
A great deal of the advice still circulating online predates that. If something you have read leans heavily on the equal shared parental responsibility presumption, it is out of date.
What Tends To Matter In Practice
Because it is a best interests assessment, no two cases run the same way. But the recurring themes are reasonably predictable.
- Why you want to move. A concrete job offer, family support or an escape from an unsafe situation carries very different weight from a vague preference.
- What the child’s relationship with the other parent is now. An involved parent seeing the child regularly is in a very different position from one who has not made contact in a year.
- Whether the relationship can survive the distance. This is the crux of most cases.
- Who pays for the travel, and can they. A proposal that depends on flights nobody can afford is not a real proposal.
- What happens if you are refused. Courts often ask whether you would move anyway, and the answer shapes the outcome.
- The child’s own views, given weight according to their maturity and understanding.
That fourth point is more important than people expect. The cost of maintaining contact across distance is assessed on what each parent can actually afford, which is established through the financial disclosure both parties must give. Our guide to financial disclosure obligations covers how that works.
Interstate Versus Overseas
| Within Australia | Overseas | |
|---|---|---|
| Criminal exposure | No specific offence for moving | Offence where orders or proceedings exist |
| Getting the child back | Recovery order | Hague Convention, if it applies |
| Preventive step | Court orders restraining the move | Watchlist, passport alerts, orders |
| Practical difficulty | Significant | Far greater, and sometimes insurmountable |
Taking A Child Overseas Is A Different Matter Entirely
This is the part where people get into genuine trouble, sometimes without realising the seriousness.
It Can Be A Criminal Offence
Where parenting orders are in place or proceedings are pending, taking a child out of Australia without consent or the court’s permission is a criminal offence under sections 65Y and 65Z of the Family Law Act. This is not a technicality and it is not treated as a family disagreement.
Passports
An Australian child passport generally requires the consent of everyone with parental responsibility. If you are worried a passport may be issued or used without your knowledge, you can lodge a child alert request with the Australian Passport Office.
A child alert does not by itself stop a child leaving the country. It flags the application.
The Family Law Watchlist
Where there is a genuine risk of a child being removed from Australia, the Australian Federal Police maintain a Family Law Watchlist. A court order can place a child on it, which alerts authorities at international departure points.
If A Child Has Already Been Taken
Within Australia
A recovery order can require a child to be returned, and can authorise officers to find and recover the child. These applications are treated as urgent, so speed matters.
Overseas
Australia is a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which provides a process for seeking the return of a child wrongfully removed to or retained in another convention country.
Two honest caveats. It only works with countries that are parties to the convention, and a great many are not. And even where it applies, the process is slow and difficult. Prevention is worth far more than cure here.
The Right Way To Do It
If you want to move, there is a sequence that gives you the best chance and keeps you out of trouble.
- Get advice before you tell anyone. Not because you should be secretive, but because the way you raise it shapes everything after.
- Try to reach agreement. Consent is faster, cheaper and better for the child than a contested hearing.
- Attempt family dispute resolution. You will generally need a section 60I certificate before applying to the court, with exceptions including family violence and genuine urgency.
- Formalise any agreement. A verbal yes is worth very little later. Put it into consent orders.
- Apply to the court if you cannot agree. Ask for permission before moving, not forgiveness after.
Where This Sits With Everything Else
Relocation rarely arrives on its own. It is usually tangled up with where each parent can afford to live once the assets are divided, which is why these questions are so often resolved together.
If housing affordability is part of why you want to move, the property settlement is not a separate problem to deal with later. Our property settlements page covers how that side works, and our overview of separation sets out how the pieces fit together.
The Short Version
- Relocation is judged on the child’s best interests, not on distance or on who the child lives with.
- There is no presumption for or against a move.
- A move is relocation if it substantially affects the child’s time with the other parent, however far it is.
- Changes commencing 6 May 2024 removed the equal shared parental responsibility presumption, so older advice may mislead you.
- A court can restrain a move, or order a child returned.
- Taking a child overseas without consent can be a criminal offence where orders or proceedings exist.
- Child passports generally need consent from everyone with parental responsibility, and child alerts exist.
- The AFP Family Law Watchlist can be used to flag a child at departure points.
- The Hague Convention helps only with member countries, and it is slow.
- Get consent or an order before you go. Moving first is the most damaging thing you can do.
The law is not trying to trap you in a postcode. It is trying to work out how a child keeps both parents when the adults no longer live in the same place, and it responds much better to a properly thought out plan than to a fait accompli.
The above is general information about Australian family law and is not legal advice. Relocation matters are highly fact specific, and you should obtain advice about your own situation before making any decision.