Blommhaart and Doha

In the matter of *Blommhaart and Doha*, Guest J of the Family Court of Australia considered an application concerning the living arrangements of two children, A and W. The dispute centred on the immediate care and control of these children, with the applicant mother seeking orders for them to live with her and for the respondent father to deliver them to her.

The court was required to determine urgent interim orders regarding the children's residence and the father's contact with them. Specifically, the court had to decide whether to dispense with personal service of the application on the respondent and to make orders for the children to live with the mother, reserving the issue of time spent with the father.

Guest J made orders treating the initiating application as urgent and abridging time for its hearing. Personal service of the application on the respondent was dispensed with. The court ordered that the children, A and W, live with the mother, with the issue of the time they spend with their father being reserved. The respondent was ordered to forthwith deliver the children to the applicant upon service of the sealed orders. Further directions were given for the filing and service of response material and for the expedited preparation of the orders, which were to include particulars of obligations and consequences of contravention pursuant to sections 65DA(2) and 62B of the *Family Law Act 1975*. The mother was directed to serve sealed copies of the orders, the application, and her affidavit on the respondent. The further hearing was adjourned to a specified date.