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An Australian family who had their three children taken from them by Italian authorities because of their controversial upbringing has called on the Albanese government to intervene to help get them back.<\/p>\n
The eight-year-old daughter and six-year-old twins of Australian woman Catherine Birmingham and her British-born husband Nathan Trevallion have been living in a state-run foster care facility in the southern region of Abruzzo for nearly four months.<\/p>\n
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Australian mother Catherine Birmingham with her British husband, Nathan Trevallion, and their children.\u00a0Website:\u00a0https:\/\/catherinelouisebirmingham.com\/<\/p>\n
Before that, the couple had been raising the children \u201coff the grid\u201d on a property near the town of Palmoli that had no running water, electricity or formal schooling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just feel empty inside, full of sadness,\u201d their father, Trevallion told 60 Minutes. \u201cThey don\u2019t deserve what\u2019s happening to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple is now undergoing court-ordered psychiatric assessments to determine whether they are fit to parent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m fighting is the very, very, very ignorant belief that what we have done to our children was wrong,\u201d Birmingham said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
There are no allegations of abuse or neglect that typically trigger the removal of children from their parents. Instead, it was an extreme bout of food poisoning that drew the eyes of the local police, the Carabinieri, in September 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been picking edible mushrooms off our property for a long time, and honestly, we had just eaten too many in a few days,\u201d Birmingham said.<\/p>\n
Trevallion added: \u201cI was vomiting, had diarrhoea, and was starting to get heat flushes and starting to sweat.\u201d<\/p>\n
When emergency responders arrived at the family\u2019s property, they were alarmed by their off-the-grid lifestyle and alerted social services.<\/p>\n
Related Article Court documents declared the home was a \u201cdilapidated ruin\u201d without utilities, and that there was a lack of essential care for the children, who had no pediatrician and who were not attending school.<\/p>\n The couple were practising what they describe as \u201cparental education\u201d, a version of homeschooling without a curriculum, drawing inspiration from the Steiner system. It rejects early academics in favour of creativity.<\/p>\n \u201cThey know how to sew, they know how to knit, they know how to chop wood, they know how to grow plants from seed,\u201d Birmingham said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re learning other life skills that every child that sits there playing with the toys is not learning.\u201d<\/p>\n Their home doesn\u2019t have a bathroom, instead just a compost toilet that is a short walk from the house. They wash in an old tub.<\/p>\n \u201cThe base philosophy behind it for us is that the children are growing up in this environment where they have freedom with a boundary,\u201d Birmingham said.<\/p>\n Trevallion said: \u201cYou wake up in the morning and do whatever you feel like doing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have to run out the door to take the children to school. It\u2019s just a very relaxed way of waking up, eating breakfast together as a family and continuing through the day.\u201d<\/p>\n But authorities were unimpressed.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Italy, inside a home there must be a toilet,\u201d mayor Giuseppe Masciulli told 60 Minutes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe house had some damage\u2026 the children did not attend school and did not practise homeschooling, which is a recognised private way of educating children in Italy, but were actually practising unschooling, which is not recognised by Italian law.\u201d<\/p>\n In April 2025, the couple were ordered to make some key changes to their lifestyle for the sake of the children.<\/p>\n \u201cThey wanted us to force [our daughter] into school, attach to mains water in our house, and put a flushing toilet in,\u201d Birmingham said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were getting ready to attach the water and talk about the toilet, but we were not going to force [our daughter into school]. I\u2019ve always said to them, \u2018If you ever want to go into school, you go to school\u2019. They don\u2019t want to.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article But it wasn\u2019t just the lack of formal education that concerned authorities; it was also the parents\u2019 lack of co-operation.<\/p>\n A court order revealed that Birmingham and Trevallion had refused to meet with social workers or participate in parenting support activities and that they wouldn\u2019t allow mandatory health checks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did say yes to a lot of things, but we were not going to do things that were going to damage our children,\u201d Birmingham said.<\/p>\n Last November, the court took the step of removing the three children and placing them in a foster care facility, alongside other children in the care of the state.<\/p>\n Birmingham negotiated a deal so she could live in the facility with them. Trevallion, gets three visits a week.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been the toughest time of my life,\u201d he said. \u201cI can\u2019t support my family right now. I can\u2019t help them.\u201d<\/p>\n The Italian public has become obsessed with the story, according to Claudio Giambene, a reporter for the country\u2019s national broadcaster, Radiotelevisione Italiana.<\/p>\n \u201cThey seem like aliens, aliens coming from a different era,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey want to be free. They don\u2019t want to respect the rules. And the typical Italian behaviour with some people coming from abroad is \u2018if you don\u2019t want to stay here, you can go home. Why don\u2019t you go back to Australia?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The family have told authorities they\u2019re ready to move to a nearby property, equipped with running water and connected to electricity, if their children are handed back to them.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve also promised to allow a teacher to visit the property and assist with homeschooling.<\/p>\n The final hurdle is the ongoing psychiatric assessment of the parents, which could take months.<\/p>\n Asked if she felt let down by a lack of support from the Australian government in their bid to have their children returned, Birmingham said: \u201cHumanity, in multiple ways, has let us down.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last resort was the Australian government, that just that killed me.\u201d<\/p>\n Professor Tonino Cantelmi, associate lecturer, Institute of Psychology at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, who has spent hours with the couple, will give evidence in their defence.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are very good parents, very affectionate, very present,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to do something to bring this family back together.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was engaging with Italian authorities and providing consular assistance to the Birmingham-Trevallion family.<\/p>\n The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. 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