Melbourne's western suburbs are gaining specialist Indigenous justice services this month, with the Children's Koori Court and Marram-Ngala Ganbu — a Koori Family Hearing Day — opening from July 2026 at the Wyndham Law Courts in Werribee, Court Services Victoria says.
The services are launching inside the $274 million complex, which is Victoria's largest court precinct outside the Melbourne CBD. The building opened in November 2025 to serve the rapidly growing communities of Melbourne's western metropolitan area, replacing the Werribee Magistrates' Court, which closed in October 2025.
At its heart, Marram-Ngala Ganbu — which means "we are one" in the Woiwurrung language — reshapes how child protection matters are heard for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. Rather than a conventional courtroom, everyone involved, including the magistrate, sits around an oval bar table to discuss the matter together.
The aim is a more effective, culturally appropriate and just response for Koori families, through a process that enables greater participation by family members and culturally-informed decision-making. To be listed, the children must be Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, with the matter case managed by a child protection office.
The model is not new to Victoria — Marram-Ngala Ganbu began at the Shepparton Children's Court in 2021 and also runs at Broadmeadows — but its arrival in Werribee extends it to one of the fastest-growing parts of the state. The Children's Koori Court, which hears sentencing in criminal matters involving Aboriginal young people, is opening alongside it.
The wider Wyndham Law Courts building was designed for scale and for the community it serves. It has 13 courtrooms, four hearing rooms, three mediation suites and 26 day-holding cells, and includes a "Community Connections" space offering access to support services in a court setting, plus a Children's Court "Cubby House" — a safe space for children and young people caught up in child protection cases.
More specialist services are still to come. The adult Koori Court and a Specialist Family Violence Court are scheduled to open at Werribee from early 2027, further concentrating jurisdictions that western-suburbs residents previously had to travel into the city or to neighbouring courts to reach.
For families across Wyndham and the surrounding growth corridor, the change means that culturally-grounded justice — long available in pockets of regional and northern Melbourne — is now part of the local court on their doorstep.
