How to Have an Amicable Divorce in Australia

You have made the decision. You are not enemies. You just want to end the marriage without it turning into something ugly you never asked for. So the real question is simple. Can you actually do this the calm way in Australia?

Yes. An amicable divorce is normal here, and it is usually faster and cheaper than fighting it out in court. But two things get muddled, so let me clear them up first. The divorce order itself is a no-fault admin step. The “amicable” part is how you sort out the money and the parenting. They are separate jobs, and this page walks you through both.

What an amicable divorce actually is

“Amicable” is not a legal category. It describes how you behave, not what the court does. In Australia, divorce is no-fault. The court does not care why the marriage ended, only that it has broken down and you have lived apart for 12 months.

Under the Family Law Act 1975, a divorce is granted on a no-fault basis once you have been separated for 12 months (s 48).

Three terms get mixed up all the time, so here is the plain-word version:

• Amicable divorce is how you handle it. Civil, cooperative, out of court.
• No-fault divorce is the legal ground. Nobody has to prove the other did anything wrong.
• Uncontested divorce means nobody opposes the application.

You can have all three at once, and most people do. Here is the part that surprises people.

Only 3% of matters actually end up in the family court. Those are the horror stories that you hear about. But 97% of people are actually able to solve their problems without spending tons of money on lawyers and going through the huge legal costs and mess of what is the family court.

So the calm route is not the exception. It is the norm.

How the divorce itself works

The divorce order is the easy part, and it runs on its own track. Here is the process end to end.

1. Be separated for 12 months and a day. This is the ground for divorce (s 48). You can even be separated while still living under one roof, but that path needs supporting evidence that the marriage has genuinely ended, so get advice before you rely on it.
2. File the application. You apply through the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, lodged online through the Commonwealth Courts Portal. You can file a joint application for divorce together, which means nobody has to be served, or a sole application, in which case you have to serve your ex.
3. Wait for it to take effect. Once the order is granted, it takes effect one month and a day later (s 55).

The court filing fee is $1,170, or a reduced fee of $390 if you hold a concession card or can show hardship (Federal Circuit and Family Court fees). Fees change, so check the current amount when you file.

One thing to be clear about: the divorce order ends the marriage. It does not divide a single dollar or settle who the children live with. That is a separate job, and it is where “amicable” actually pays off. If your split is genuinely contested, our divorce lawyers can guide the harder parts, but plenty of amicable couples handle the divorce order themselves.

Sorting out the money and the parenting

This is the real work, and it is where being amicable saves you the most. If you two agree, you can make that agreement legally binding in two ways.

The first, and the one I like to call the holy grail of a settlement, is consent orders. You write down what you have agreed, file it with the court, and the court checks the deal is just and equitable. If it is, the court can approve it without you ever setting foot in a courtroom, and it then has the same force as any order made after a hearing. Superannuation can be split as part of the pool, under Part VIIIB of the Family Law Act.

The second is a binding financial agreement, which is a private contract each of you signs with your own legal advice. Different tool, different rules, so it is worth getting advice on which one fits your situation.

The court does not just grab a calculator and split everything down the middle. There is no automatic 50/50 in Australia. What matters is what each of you contributed and what each of you needs going forward.

Most people actually do the property split before they divorce because they can just do it earlier. People don’t want to have that financial responsibility lingering over their heads, so it’s in everyone’s best interest to do the financial separation as soon as possible.

There is one clock worth knowing about. Once your divorce is final, you generally have 12 months to bring a property settlement or spousal maintenance application to the court (s 44(3)). After that you need the court’s permission or your ex’s consent, and neither is guaranteed. So even when things are friendly, formalising the money side is worth doing early rather than leaving it open.

Mediation and family dispute resolution

Family dispute resolution is the amicable route in a nutshell: a neutral, accredited practitioner helps you reach agreement without a judge deciding for you. This is where good family mediation earns its keep.

There is one rule to know. Before you can apply to a court for parenting orders, you generally need a section 60I certificate from an accredited practitioner, unless an exception applies such as family violence or urgency. You can read the details on the Attorney-General’s guidance on section 60I certificates.

If cost is a worry, Family Relationship Centres are a low-cost place to start. The government’s alternatives to court page lays out your options.

What changed on 10 June 2025

If you have read older articles, some of it is now out of date. The Family Law Amendment Act 2024 changed how a property settlement is decided from 10 June 2025, and it matters more than it sounds when you are trying to stay amicable.

• The four-step approach the court uses is now written into the Act itself.
• Financial abuse is expressly a form of family violence the court must weigh (s 4AB).
• Money one party spent or disposed of is now dealt with directly in the property provisions. The court can bring that value back into the pool as a notional asset, so the person who spent it is treated as having already received their share of it. The old “add-back” label has gone. The remedy has not.
• Pets now have their own companion-animal rules rather than being treated as ordinary property.
• The duty of full and frank financial disclosure is now written into the Act.

Here is why that helps you. Disclosure is now a legal duty, not just good manners. Being open with each other about what you own from the start is not only decent, it is the law, and it is exactly what keeps a settlement amicable. The Attorney-General has published a plain-English fact sheet for separating couples on the changes.

What it costs and how long it takes

A contested matter can run 18 months to two years and cost tens of thousands of dollars each. An amicable settlement by consent orders can be approved without a hearing, in a fraction of that time and cost. The divorce order itself is the small, fixed piece; the settlement is where the money and the months get spent, or saved.

There is also a question people are often too polite to ask, so let me answer it.

Let me tell you something up front that most law firms won’t. You might not even need us. Did you know around 70% of Australian couples with kids manage to sort things out without lawyers? They reach agreements on parenting and property and make it work and move on.

If you and your ex genuinely agree, you may only need a lawyer to check the paperwork and lodge the consent orders. That is a very different bill from a full court fight.

Keeping it amicable when there are children

The words matter here, and the old US terms do not apply in Australia. There is no “custody” and no “visitation”. We talk about parenting arrangements, and about who a child “lives with” and “spends time with”, always measured against the best interests of the child.

You can lock in parenting arrangements through consent orders, the same way you do with property, which makes them enforceable. Or you can use a parenting plan, which is a written, signed agreement between you. Be honest with yourself about the difference: a parenting plan is not enforceable. It is a written handshake. It works beautifully while you both stick to it, and it does nothing on the day one of you stops.

One practical habit helps more than anything: keep the changeover about the child, not about the two of you. The kids are watching how you handle this, and that is the part they remember.

High-net-worth separations

Where the pool is large, amicable is still possible, but the detail gets harder. Business valuations, superannuation splitting, and assets held across different structures all take proper work to get right. The new disclosure duty bites hardest exactly here, because a complex pool is where things get hidden, deliberately or by accident. Getting the valuation and the disclosure right up front is what stops a friendly split turning sour later.

Where to from here

An amicable divorce is not about who wins. It is about getting through this cleanly and getting on with your life. Most people can. If you want someone to check your consent orders, explain where you stand, or handle the parts you would rather not, that is what me and my team of divorce lawyers do every day.

Book a free discovery call on 1300 614 732 or send us a message, and we will walk you through your next step. No pressure, just clear advice.