We're Melinda and Alex...family and business partners, and we've survived both!

We think we're the only mother-and-son Family Law Mediation team in Australia. We've looked around, and if there's another one out there, they're doing a very good job of hiding…but we’d love to hear from you.

Meet Melinda

Long before becoming a Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner, Melinda was busy raising four boys while wondering what to do once the youngest finally made it to high school. Instead of taking up golf or pottery, she decided a Social Science degree sounded like fun…

That decision led to a long career with Queensland Corrective Services working as an Assessment Officer and Supervisor across the custodial and community arms of the criminal justice system. It's fair to say Melinda’s seen people at their very best... and occasionally at their absolute worst.

After the family swapped Maryborough for Far North Queensland, Melinda traded prisons for helping people serving community sentences try to stay out of them. She then spent seven years as a Relationship Counsellor helping couples navigate their relationship highs, lows and everything in between.

Apparently, that still wasn't challenging enough, so Melinda completed a Postgraduate Diploma of Family Dispute Resolution and discovered a profession where people are encouraged to agree—hopefully with less yelling…but she still harbours a passion for helping people make better choices when under the influence of anger. That’s why Melinda developed the Anger Management Program – and also why she chooses to facilitate it herself.

With tertiary qualifications in Counselling and Interpersonal Communication Skills, Melinda felt it was time to add to her professional toolbox by becoming a Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner (aka Family Law Mediator).  Her aim is to help separated families develop parenting and property agreements that ultimately give their child/ren a childhood they don’t need to recover from.  Melinda is a member of the Resolution Institute.

Meet Alex

As a young lad, Alex flew the coup and headed to Toowoomba where he completed a Bachelor of Business (with 1st Class Honours in Applied Economics & Resources Management) before following the family north. His career took him into marketing and tourism, where he somehow convinced people to visit beautiful places and got paid well for it!  The job saw him travelling extensively throughout Oceania and Asia, collecting experiences, stories and far too many airport coffees.  After 10 years of being in salaried senior Sales & Marketing Manager roles, Alex decided to strike out as a consultant, and even spent time as a national manager for a pub accommodation group.

While Alex was busy seeing the world, Melinda was quietly collecting another qualification. By the time he returned, she had a whole new career—and a business proposal that meant mother and son could see each other every single day!

The Family Business Nobody Saw Coming…

One conversation led to another and before long mother and son became business partners, forming Northern Frontiers Mediation & Counselling on 1st July 2017.

‘Turns out we bring very different strengths to the table. Melinda contributes decades of experience working in the criminal justice, counselling and family dispute resolution fields. Alex brings business expertise, strategic thinking, fresh perspectives and the ability to explain technology without making his mother feel 'outdated'.

Not to be outdone by his mother, Alex quickly gained accreditation as a family law mediator. He’s now the ‘money man’ – which means he does all the property mediations and Melinda does all the parenting mediations. Together, we help separating couples have difficult conversations in a calmer, more solution-focussed way. We've learnt that separating families don't need more conflict—they just need better conversations.

Being family ourselves gives us a unique business dynamic. We know disagreements are inevitable, so we’ve learnt how to disagree respectfully. We also know it’s important to listen for understanding—particularly when you don't see eye to eye. As mediators our job is to facilitate conversations that parties find difficult to have (or avoid all together) and work towards resolution without reverting to past conflicts.

We're not here to take sides or make decisions for you. We're here to help you find a way forward through the haze of separation and beyond.

And if we really are Australia's only mother-and-son Family Law Mediation team, we think that's something worth talking about!