Before her murder, Rachelle Yeo knew she was in danger. She had changed jobs and moved city after ending an 18-month affair with work colleague Paul Mulvihill. But her efforts to escape his harassment were foiled the day he broke into her Sydney apartment and stabbed her twice with a kitchen knife in the neck and chest.

Of the 510 homicides reported in Australia between 2008 and 2010, violence between partners or former partners accounted for 122 of them, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology. Domestic violence that does not end in death and may be unreported is more common. According to a survey, 17 per cent of all women and 5 per cent of men in Australia have experienced violence by a partner since they were 15.

The problem is so acute that companies are finding ways to help combat it.