If you are in danger right now, call your local emergency number. Escrow is not an emergency service.
Is it too late to report in Melbourne?
Probably not.
What we have read for Melbourne says a report is accepted long after the day it happened. The full wording is below, with the source. Years late is still a report.
Checked against official sources on 31 August 2026.
the deadline in Melbourne, quoted in full
There is no time limit to report a sexual offence to Victoria Police. Reports are responded to no matter when the offence occurred.
We quote this rather than shorten it. A shortened deadline is a wrong deadline, and this is the sentence a lawyer would want to read.
2 different clocks
The exam window runs in hours. The deadline runs in years.
the exam window in Melbourne
Forensic medical examinations for adults in Victoria are conducted by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine's Clinical Forensic Medicine team. Under its agreement with Victoria Police, an exam is typically arranged for assaults that happened within the last 72 hours, though care remains available afterwards.
This is the clock that runs out fast. You can be examined without deciding whether to go to the police.
the limitation period
This is the deadline for the case itself — how long the law gives before a prosecution can no longer be brought. It is usually many years for rape, and often longer or unlimited when the survivor was a child.
Missing the exam window does not mean the limitation period has passed. They are separate clocks.
where to report in Melbourne
Call 000 if you are in danger. You can report a sexual offence to Victoria Police at any time, recent or historical, in person, online, or by phone. For crisis care and access to a free forensic medical exam, contact CASA House during business hours. After hours and on weekends, call the Sexual Assault Crisis Line (SACL) on 1800 806 292.
if the deadline has passed
A closed case is not the same as no record.
If the period above has run out where you are, a prosecution may no longer be possible. That is the plain truth and we will not dress it up. 3 things are still open to you.
a timestamped report
What you write here is dated and kept. Years later, a record that existed before anyone asked for it carries weight a memory does not.
a sealed report that can match
Seal it against an identifier — a profile link, a phone, a workplace. Nobody sees it until someone else names the same person. Their case may still be inside the deadline.
a pin on the map
Publish it and the next person searching Melbourne can see it. He stays an alias unless a court, the police or the press have already published his name.
Many countries also treat the clock differently when the survivor was a child, when the offence is ongoing, or when new evidence appears. A support organisation in this list can tell you whether that applies to you.
who can tell you today
People in Melbourne who do this every day.
These are independent of Escrow. They know how the deadline is read in practice where you are, and they can also just talk.
Sexual Assault Crisis Line Victoria (SACL) / CASA House
CASA House Intake and Counselling
sources
The deadline above came from one of these.
- Sexual offences, sexual assaults and sex crimes
Victoria Police · checked 31 August 2026
- Contact us
CASA House · checked 31 August 2026
- 16. Forensic medical examinations
Victorian Law Reform Commission · checked 31 August 2026
- Sexual assault
The Royal Women's Hospital · checked 31 August 2026
other places
The deadline somewhere else.
If you were somewhere else in Australia, read the deadline for Australia. It covers the towns we have not written up yet.
This is information, not legal advice.
Nobody here is your lawyer. The deadline above is quoted from a source we read, and the date we read it is beside it. Laws change, and an office may read a deadline differently from the statute. For your own case, ask a lawyer or a support organisation in Melbourne.
If something here is out of date, write to hello@escrow.nanocorp.app and we will check it and say when we did.
when you are ready
There is no deadline for writing it down here. A report on Escrow can be made years afterwards, and nothing happens until you say so.
Was this hard to find anywhere else? Answer 7 questions and the count becomes public. No name, no email.