Adoption in Australia is a complex legal process — get the right advice from the start.

Adoption in Australia is administered by individual states and territories under their own legislation — such as the Adoption Act 2000 (NSW), Adoption Act 1984 (Vic), and similar Acts in other states. Each state sets its own eligibility criteria (age, relationship status, residency), assessment processes, and consent requirements. The federal government's role is largely limited to intercountry adoption, through the Hague Convention framework and bilateral treaties. Because the rules differ significantly between states, specialist local legal advice is essential.

Local (domestic) adoption involves adopting a child who is an Australian resident or citizen, usually through the state child welfare system. It is rare in modern Australia — fewer than 300 local adoptions occur annually — because most children in need of permanent care receive it through long-term foster placements or guardianship orders. Intercountry adoption involves adopting a child from an overseas country that Australia has a bilateral adoption arrangement with (currently Fiji, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Ethiopia, and Colombia, though arrangements change). Intercountry adoption requires approval from both the overseas country and Australian authorities, takes several years, and involves significant costs.

Step-parent adoption requires the consent of the child's other birth parent (or an order from the court dispensing with that consent where the parent is deceased, cannot be found, or where dispensation is in the child's best interests), approval from the state adoption authority, a period of living with the child, a background assessment (including a suitability assessment), and an application to the Supreme Court or relevant state tribunal. Courts assess whether adoption is in the child's best interests — which also includes the impact on the child's identity and existing family relationships.

Each birth parent must give informed, written consent to the adoption, usually before an authorised witness (such as a lawyer or counsellor). There are mandatory counselling and "cooling off" periods — typically at least 28 days after the birth — before consent can be given for a newborn, and consent can be revoked within a further specified period. If a birth parent is deceased, cannot be located, or lacks capacity, the court can dispense with their consent. A child who is old enough to understand (generally 12 years or older) must also consent to their own adoption.

Modern adoptions in Australia are almost always "open" — meaning there is an agreement for ongoing contact (letters, photos, visits) between the adoptive family and the birth family, in recognition of the child's identity and connection to their origins. This is a significant shift from the "closed" adoptions common before the 1980s, where all identifying information was sealed and contact was severed. Open adoption contact agreements are encouraged by state authorities and may be incorporated into the adoption order as a binding arrangement, though enforcement can be complex in practice.

Adoption permanently and irrevocably transfers all parental rights and responsibilities to the adoptive parents — the child's birth certificate is reissued with the adoptive parents' names, and the legal relationship with birth parents is severed (subject to open adoption contact arrangements). Long-term foster care provides a stable placement but the state retains parental responsibility, the arrangement can be reviewed, and the carer has no independent parental decision-making authority. Guardianship under the Family Law Act 1975 or state laws sits between the two — it gives the guardian parental responsibility, but the birth parents' legal relationship with the child is not extinguished.