Gday, brand new to this and hoping to get some advice. My wife rang me at work and said she was leaving me. I have 2 girls a 14 month old (still being breastfed) and a 3.5 year old. She wont let them stay with me at all and in a week has allowed me to see them once in a park for 1.5 hours. What should I do. I am desperate to see my children.

dad of 2,

You will need to get legal advice and act straight away.
Now this may sound heavy handed (and may well be in your case), but advice from a family law practitioner will let you know where you stand. Please note once you get solicitors involved they build momentum for the case and use words, claims and accusations that your ex may not be aware of or even want to say, they do not get personally involved but only to line their pockets. Sometimes we have no choice tho.

What has just happened to you has happened to most fathers out there, this method seems to be standard practice by mothers today and then the reason 'why?' they acted begins.
Is conversation still ammicable with your ex? If so most of the problems are solved already if not, well have a good browse of this forum.

Mediation is the obvious step to establish a shared care plan, but it sounds like your ex has already laid down her instructions on what she wants and has taken control of your access already.

One parent cannot remove access to the children by the other parent, this is not "in the best interest of the child". The parent who has removed the children (usually the mother) will be viewing the best interest of the children to be with her, but in actual fact the child has the right to be raised with equal care of both parents, and loosely speaking this is how the family law initially views each case. It then comes down to discrediting one parent or the other, and with evidence.

Don't be too concerned about the breast feeding fact as this won't go on forever and if you read some outcomes of recent cases this will not stop you from being able to spend good valuable time with your children. I actually read recently of a case where the mother was breast feeding a child (and procrastinating ending this) and still the father achieved 50/50 unsupervised care.

Keep us posted on how things are going. You will always be able to see your girls, stay cool.

I agree with Cogs,
Definitely get the lines of communication open with her, and organise time to see your girls, they will be missing you as much as you miss them.

Always try to do it the amicable way, but if she won't budge then there are a number of ways to approach the problem. I'd be getting onto Relationships Australia and organising mediation and get a parenting plan into effect asap. The sooner you can arrange regular contact then you'll have some peace of mind.

good luck