Level 7 - a new space to service the community

The Children’s Court is a specialist court that hears and determines cases involving the care and protection, and criminal offending of children and young people.  

Two new court rooms have been purpose-built for hearings at the Children's Court of Victoria, Melbourne. The new facilities are now open and located on Level 7 of 436 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.  

The facilities include court rooms that have been designed to conduct hearings in different ways. Within each court room, circular bar tables have been installed and can be adapted for use in traditional court hearings or the style of round-table adjudication that occurs in Koori Court and Family Drug Treatment Court.  

The Level 7 conference and breakout rooms have also been given special names in the Wurrindjeri language, selected by the Wurrundjeri Land Council. These include:  

• Wilim Daminon-inon or ‘room of peace’ for a discrete waiting room. 
• Wilim Ngarrang or ‘room of thoughts’; and Ngalimbe ba Ngang-gak or ‘sit and listen’ for the conference rooms. 
• Bagung or ‘gathering’; Gahgook-djak Wilim or ‘respectful place’; Womin jeka or ‘welcome’; Noogal or ‘belong’; Kulin-bulok Wilim or ‘community room’ for the breakout rooms. 

Beyond the public spaces, Level 7 will accommodate specialist program staff of the Children’s Court in an open office area and a secure registry workspace. 

Where are the new facilities? 

The court rooms are in the same building as the Children’s Court Conference Centre (on level 5) and are situated on the other side of the main Children’s Court venue in Melbourne (477 Little Lonsdale Street).  

Parties can access our new court rooms by walking through a security checkpoint at the entrance of 436 Lonsdale Street and taking the lifts (located on the left) to Level 7.  

The 436 Lonsdale building can also be accessed from the Melbourne Children’s Court by walking along Rostella Way (a paved path to the right of the Children’s Court). Turn left at the burgundy gates onto Lonsdale Street and walk down the hill until you arrive at the 436 Court building.  

The entrance of the 436 Lonsdale Street building has large letters above its doorway that read ‘MCMXXIX’. Enter here.  

How to get there 

Level 7, 436 Lonsdale Street is a five-minute walk from Flagstaff Station. The closest tram stop is the number 58 on William Street, Melbourne.