Magellan is a case-management pathway in the Family Court of Australia for cases where serious allegations are raised about sexual or physical abuse of children in post-separation parenting matters. In 1997, the Chief Justice of the Family Court, The Honourable Alastair Nicholson, appointed a committee, led by The Honourable Justice Linda Dessau, to develop a new way for the Court to manage these cases. This was done to address the concerns that the Court had about the number of cases involving allegations of child abuse, and the capacity of its case-management procedures to effectively and efficiently respond to these concerns. The pilot Magellan project commenced in 1998.

The Magellan case-management processes are overseen by the Magellan Team, which consists of the Magellan Judge(s), Judicial Associate(s), Magellan Registrar, the Manager of the Child Dispute Services (which provides Court clients with the services of a mediator, now known as a "Family Consultant"), and a Client Services Officer (Case Coordinator). Under the direction of the Magellan Judge(s), the team handles the case from start to finish, with significant resources directed to the case in the early stages, with an aim of resolving the case within six months.

Based on a successful pilot project, Magellan has been rolled-out across the Family Court of Australia's registries since 2003, under the direction of the Family Court of Australia's National Magellan Stakeholder Committee. This committee was responsible for commissioning the research, and acted as a steering group for the evaluation throughout. The Committee is chaired by a Family Court Judge (The Honourable Justice Rodney Burr), and contains representatives from organisations involved with and concerned about parenting matters involving serious allegation of child abuse, including the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department, Victoria Legal Aid, Victoria Department of Human Services, and National Legal Aid. In August 2006, the Committee called for expressions of interest, and in September, commissioned the Institute to evaluate the implementation of Magellan.

The overall aim of the study was to evaluate the Magellan case-management model against its intended goal of being an effective mechanism for responding to serious allegations of sexual abuse or physical abuse of children in post-separation parenting matters before the Family Court of Australia.