A win for Moree as new Legal Aid NSW office opens
24 July 2025
People in Moree and north western NSW will have greater access to legal services at their doorstep with the official opening of a new Legal Aid NSW office to meet growing demand.
Legal Aid NSW encourages people to contact the office with their legal concerns, particularly if they are struggling with family breakdown or issues with parenting or child support issues or problems with housing, fines, debt, employment, NDIS, Centrelink or criminal matters.
People will be able to drop into the office shopfront to be connected to the right service and access a wide range of in-person and online services. Legal Aid will provide legal advice and representation for clients with criminal law issues at Moree Local Court and Moree Children’s Court, as well as drop-in advice clinics. Solicitors from Legal Aid’s specialist Aboriginal family law and civil law units will be available for appointments at the office or nearby where it is needed.
Legal Aid NSW has been providing telephone advice and outreach services to the region on a fly-in, fly-out basis but now clients can seek legal help from a dedicated team of local experts in a permanent ‘shopfront’ office.
Legal Aid NSW CEO Monique Hitter said opening an office in Moree was about meeting growing unmet legal need in the region, particularly for young people and families. Legal Aid NSW has been steadily increasing services in the town and surrounding region and is keen for this to continue. In 2024–25, Legal Aid NSW provided 1,256 services to people in the Moree region, a 33 per cent increase over four years.
“This is so important for local communities, to have access to permanent and on-site legal services. This is an area where there is significant unmet demand for legal services, which is why we are committed to ensuring Moree locals have the same access to high quality legal services as those in other towns and regions,” Ms Hitter said.
“We will complement the work of other support services in the region by focusing on unmet legal need. We will collaborate closely with existing local services so that Legal Aid NSW is an option for the community when they have a legal problem.”
“We also acknowledge the traditional owners of the land in Moree, the Kamilaroi people. We are committed to providing culturally-safe legal services to Aboriginal people and communities in the region. This is so important and this will be a key focus for our Aboriginal Field Officer.”
With more than 22 per cent of the Moree Plains population being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, the office will provide a permanent base for Legal Aid NSW’s Civil Law Service for Aboriginal Communities and the Family Law Service for Aboriginal Communities, and they will be able to offer drop-in advice clinics for Aboriginal clients.
The Moree Legal Aid team will initially consist of a Solicitor in Charge, an Office Manager, an Aboriginal Field Officer and a Crime Solicitor, who can also direct people to all the other legal services provided by Legal Aid NSW .
Solicitor in Charge, Family Lawyer, Haney Cho said she was excited to work with the local community to ensure their legal needs are met.
Moree local and Kamilaroi woman Aboriginal Field Officer Lola Craigie said she was proud to connect her Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mob with culturally-safe legal help knowing that doing so will help to improve outcomes for them.
The office is located at Unit 3, 25 Auburn Street, Moree NSW 2400 and can be contacted via LawAccess by calling 1300 888 529.
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