Central Australia Women's Legal Service

CAWLS was born out of necessity back in the early 1990s, when a group of dedicated women legal practitioners began providing free legal advice to women in need. Mostly these women were victims of domestic violence who had no other access to legal advice. Over time, it became obvious that women in Central Australia required a full time legal service. A submission to the federal government ultimately resulted in the creation of CAWLS.

Our vision is to aspire for a future where all women and their children are safe, living with dignity and respect.

Our team provides free and confidential legal advice to all women in Central Australia & the Barkly Region.

CAWLS offers:

• Drop-in domestic violence and victims of crime service

• Free advice sessions by appointment

Our team can also help with:

• obtaining, varying or revoking domestic violence orders

• family law problems – children, property, maintenance and child support

• compensation – victims of crime, motor vehicle accident, workplace claims

• child protection

• discrimination

• employment and dismissal

• credit and debt matters

• tenancy matters

• migration & visa assistance

• financial assistance service, via our in-house financial counsellor

• Ongoing legal representation is available in some cases.

If you think you need legal advice, please contact us to make an appointment via our free call hotline, 1800 684 055.

We also provide community legal education, have an outreach service and undertake law reform work.

CAWLS seeks to ensure that every client’s experience is validated and that they are empowered to utilise the legal and social welfare system to their benefit. By assisting every woman to the best of our ability, we are assisting the community to achieve social justice health.

CAWLS office locations:

• Alice Springs: 1 Stott Terrace (next to Kmart), Westpoint Building, Alice Springs NT 0870

• Tennant Creek: 85 Paterson Street (next to Centrelink), Tennant Creek NT 0860