British Expats - Partner Visa advice please!

Greetings folks,

I have recently reconnected, through odd circumstances with the love of my life. We were together many moons ago early to the middle of the first decade of this century , and then she moved with me to Australia on a year working visa. We were also engaged. And very much part of each other's families back in Europe...

Unfortunately, I was pulled into a very personally painful horrorshow,which I was too young to process and for a variety of reasons, I dealt with things by roaring...long enough to push everyone away. We parted soon after we flew back to the UK. I headed back to Australia a year or so later (I hold Australian and British passports) with a different partner, with the relationship wrong from the start. Then faced with heading back to the UK, I opted to stay here.

Years have passed, with one other major relationship, which ended a year or so back. Now...by some strange circumstances, I reconnected with my former flame recently, long distance, bizarre really. The first time I heard her voice light was shed on parts of my heart I long thought dead. They were not. And this sentiment was mirrored in her. From that moment, a few weeks back now, we have spent hours talking by phone, exchanged messages, videos, voice message, video chat, every single morning, day and night, only not connected for the hours when either of us sleeps, and in that time we write each other novel length letters.

We have drawn each other into our lives, the magnetism remains immense, and has more than revived. What should take effort to maintain such steady flow between us, given the distance, feels natural and light... I am set to visit her in the Uk in early 2018 for three weeks. There have been practical discussions of potential to be together long term. These have of course focused only problematically on any potential move to Australia... She has an infant son. She separated from the partner, to whom she was not married, close to two years ago.

She is in her early 30s, of french nationality and passport. Yet remains living in England. We have produced in each other feelings never found with any other, with both of us seemingly reacting to my horrors of many moons ago in a similar fashion, finding nothing of the same depth, seeking each other in others or the complete opposite...I was shocked to find she had kept so much of our relationship, stunned really. Yet the reaction of both her family and mine, and closest of friends is 'no surprise'...

Anyway I am getting carried away. I shall cut to the chase! I am seeking advice as the options seem myriad and complicated. And before I engage the services of a Migration Agent, I wish to gather as much as I can understand from my own research. I understand her potential move here with her son is viable. Yet all paths are lengthy and costly. How costly depends on any issues that arrive in terms of satisfying the requirements.

The partner visa appears the most logical route, yet the 12 months de facto requirement is...difficult to completely understand and seems solely viable if this can be proven to have begun when I stay with her for a month in England, with documented evidence of mutual decisions towards a committed relationship together, with steady communication when apart.

On another forum, a knowledgeable chap suggested that a visitor visa for Australia would be the best first step, ideally for 12 months, which would then satisfy the 12 month de facto requirement, though that might be counted from when I see her in January? Depending on supporting material. Would marriage make the process more simplified?

Is my best bet to speak to Immigration for advice?

Are there recommended Migration Agents for Melbourne or do such consultations not require face to face?

Rather than bang on about what I have found in fragments, I will ask others to advise me.

Please suggest my options.

Thank you!

Oscar