AVO Laws Across Australia: What Every State and Territory Calls It

"AVO" is the New South Wales name for a protection order. Every other Australian state and territory uses a different name, a different Act, and different rules for how long an order lasts and what a breach costs, so a search for "AVO" often lands on the wrong state's law.

Someone searching "AVO" from Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory or the ACT is usually looking for their own jurisdiction's protection order, not the specifically New South Wales law that uses that acronym. The table below matches each state and territory's real order names and Acts to the page that covers it in full.

If you are in immediate danger, call 000. For confidential domestic, family or sexual violence counselling and support, contact 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, available 24 hours a day.

What your state or territory actually calls it

Eight jurisdictions, eight sets of names. Click through to the page for your own state or territory for the full detail on applying, responding and breach penalties.

South Australia is the structural outlier. It runs one Act and one order name for both domestic and non-domestic cases, so the domestic versus personal distinction is a fact about the case rather than a different order type. Every other jurisdiction splits into two differently named orders, usually under two separate Acts.

The one rule that applies everywhere: domestic orders travel, personal orders do not

Whichever state or territory issued your order, one national rule cuts across all eight: a domestic or family violence order made anywhere in Australia from 25 November 2017 onward is automatically enforceable across the whole country under the National Domestic Violence Order Scheme. The Australian Government Attorney-General's Department states this directly: "All Domestic Violence Orders (DVOs) issued in an Australian state or territory from 25 November 2017 are automatically recognised and enforceable across Australia."

An order made before 25 November 2017 is not automatically covered. It can be declared a nationally recognised order at any local court in Australia, not necessarily the court that issued it, so it protects a person who later moves interstate.

The trap for readers is the personal, non-domestic order. An APVO, PSIO, Peace and Good Behaviour Order, Violence Restraining Order, Misconduct Restraining Order, Tasmanian restraint order, Personal Violence Restraining Order or Personal Protection Order is not automatically recognised outside the state or territory that made it. Legal Aid WA states this plainly for its own state's orders: a Family Violence Restraining Order made after 25 November 2017 "automatically applies across Australia as soon as the order comes into force," but a Violence Restraining Order needs separate registration "in each state or territory where you want the order to be in force," because "only restraining orders relating to family violence can be nationally recognised." South Australia's own Legal Services Commission confirms the same split for its Intervention Order: domestic ones are automatically recognised nationally from 25 November 2017, while non-domestic ones "are currently unable to be recognised and enforced throughout Australia."

National recognition also does not mean national uniformity. Queensland Courts' own guidance on the scheme is explicit that it "does not introduce consistent domestic and family violence laws" and "will not lead to any standardisation of the conditions" that appear on an order. A recognised order stays enforceable everywhere, but the conditions it imposes, and the state that will enforce a breach, still follow the issuing jurisdiction's own law. For a reader moving interstate or with ties in more than one state, the practical takeaway is simple: confirm whether your specific order is a domestic/family order or a personal/non-domestic order before assuming national coverage.

How long a default order lasts

If an order does not state its own end date, each jurisdiction falls back to a different default, and the gap between them is wide. This is one of the most reader relevant facts in the whole comparison: an order that would run for two years in NSW can run indefinitely in Victoria for functionally the same conduct.

Breach penalties: structure and headline maximums

Breaching a protection order is a criminal offence everywhere in Australia, but the structure of that offence is not uniform. Some states apply one flat penalty regardless of circumstances; others escalate sharply by intent, repetition or prior convictions. The table below states each jurisdiction's headline structure and its highest tier. Full per-tier detail, including exact section numbers and the current penalty unit conversion, is on the state page: never rely on the summary figures below alone for a specific case.

Two things worth calling out explicitly. First, the usual pattern across Australia is that a personal or non-domestic order carries a lower breach ceiling than its domestic counterpart in the same jurisdiction, matching the general principle that domestic violence offending is treated more seriously. Queensland's PGBO, at 1 year against the DVO's 3 to 5 years, and Western Australia's MRO, at a $1,000 fine only against the FVRO/VRO's $10,000 and 2 years, both follow that pattern. The ACT and the Northern Territory break it: in both, the non-domestic order's breach ceiling matches the domestic order's ceiling exactly, which is not the norm elsewhere.

Second, agency pages themselves are not always current on the dollar conversion. South Australia's own Attorney-General's Department has confirmed that a widely circulated "$2,000 or 2 years" figure for an intervention order breach describes only the mildest tier, the intervention-program-term breach, not the general breach penalty, which is far higher, and that the confusion has caused real charging errors in past prosecutions. Queensland Courts' own Peace and Good Behaviour Order page separately states a stale breach fine. Always work from the penalty unit count and the current per-unit rate on the relevant state page rather than a remembered dollar figure.

Firearms consequences differ by mechanism, not just by state

A protection order's effect on a firearms licence is not consistent either, and the difference is not simply which state, it is whether the consequence is automatic by operation of law or left to the court's discretion.

See firearms licensing across Australia for how a suspension, revocation or cancellation plays out in practice once it is triggered.

Applying for an order, or responding to one

Every state and territory page in this section covers both sides of a protection order matter: how to apply, whether police can or must apply on your behalf, what an interim or police issued order does before a full hearing, and how to respond to, vary or contest an order you have been served with. None of these pages offers advice on a specific case, and none assumes the reader is either the person seeking protection or the person named as respondent.

Protection order proceedings often intersect with other areas of family and consumer law. If children are involved, see parenting orders in Australia and the family court process in Australia; a protection order does not itself decide parenting arrangements. For couples who are not married, see de facto relationships in Australia for how that status affects a domestic order. A tenant who needs to leave a lease early because of family violence should see breaking a lease in Australia, which covers the family-violence early termination pathway available in most states.

Recording an abusive partner or ex-partner as evidence for a protection order application is common, but state surveillance-devices consent law still applies to how that recording can be made and used; see Australia's recording laws before relying on a recording made without the other person's knowledge.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is an AVO the same thing everywhere in Australia?

No. AVO is New South Wales' term. Every other state and territory uses a different name and a different Act, and the rules on duration, breach penalties and firearms consequences differ between them. Find your own jurisdiction in the terminology table above.

If I get a protection order in one state, is it enforceable if I move to another state?

It depends on whether the order is a domestic or family violence order, or a personal or non-domestic order. A domestic or family violence order made from 25 November 2017 onward is automatically enforceable nationwide under the National Domestic Violence Order Scheme. A personal or non-domestic order is not automatically recognised outside the state or territory that made it and generally needs separate registration wherever you need it enforced.

What is the difference between a domestic order and a personal order?

A domestic or family violence order applies where the parties have, or had, a domestic or family relationship, such as partners, ex-partners or some family members. A personal or non-domestic order covers conduct between people without that relationship, such as neighbours, colleagues or acquaintances. Most states use two differently named orders for the two situations; South Australia uses one order and one Act for both.