One of the major changes in Australian family patterns in recent years has been the large increase in the numbers of couples who cohabit prior to marriage. Most research on the domestic division of labour has concentrated on married couples looking at the factors which promote or hinder egalitarian allocations of household labour between husbands and wives. Recently a number of studies have appeared which examine the allocation of housework across households with differing living arrangements. The results of this research tend to suggest that cohabiting and remarried couples have less traditional patterns of domestic labour than married couples. This article examines the impact of cohabitation on child rearing and housework patterns, asks whether cohabitees have more egalitarian arrangements than married couples and looks at the impact of cohabitation on domestic labour patterns after marriage.