Since 1969, Australian action with regard to abusing families has been based on the premise that most parents do not wish to hurt their children but only do so in response to a stress situation. The Australian family has changed greatly during the past 30 years, increasingly evolving towards a one-parent family and, therefore becoming more vulnerable to the pressures of 24-hour child rearing. The sole source of statistics on child abuse are hospitals and child protection services; though all Australian States probably maintain an index of reported cases, no central register for diagnosing and monitoring cases of child abuse exists. To assist in diagnosing child abuse, the State Welfare Adminstrators have recently accepted a comprehensive definition encompassing physical violence as well as emotional abuse and neglect. Three factors have helped to spur the growing awareness of emotional aspects in child abuse: the impotence of professionals to change resistant families, the growth of development psychology, and accounts from adults who have suffered child abuse. A recent Western Australian survey of child sexual abuse victims revealed several disturbing factors: public and professional fear of involving the police, overharsh penalties inducing molesters to deny at all cost, frequent adult disbelief in children's accounts of molestation, and the frequent dropping of police charges due to lack of evidence. The article concludes that the development of child services delivery in Australia, though uneven, has been consistent with a growing willingness to address the national implications of the problem even through necessary legal reform. Included are 14 references.