Eastern and Anor and a**Fa** (No. 2)

In the matter of Eastern and Anor and a**Fa** (No. 2), Strickland J of the Family Court of Australia considered an application by two individuals seeking to commence adoption proceedings in the Youth Court of South Australia concerning a child born in August 2005. The respondents to the application were not explicitly identified in the provided text.

The primary legal issue before the Court was whether to grant leave pursuant to section 60G of the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth) for the applicants to initiate adoption proceedings in a state court, specifically the Youth Court of South Australia. This involved determining if the circumstances warranted such an order, which would permit the adoption application to proceed outside of the federal jurisdiction of the Family Court.

Strickland J granted leave to the applicants to commence proceedings in the Youth Court of South Australia for the adoption of the child. Concurrently, the Court dismissed paragraph 2 of the Application for Final Orders filed on 20 March 2008 and ordered that the Application for Final Orders filed on that date be removed from the active pending cases list. These orders indicate a shift in the forum for the adoption proceedings.