Forced Adoption Tasmania: The Redress Scheme and What Survivors Need to Know

For women who gave up a child under duress — pressured by family, medical staff, or social workers in an era when unmarried motherhood was treated as something shameful to be hidden — the state's acknowledgment of that harm has been a long time coming. Tasmania's Historical Forced Adoptions Redress Scheme, which opened in late 2025, is that acknowledgment. It cannot undo what happened, but it provides financial recognition, access to counselling support, and the opportunity for a direct personal response from the government.

This post explains what the scheme offers, who is eligible, and where to find support — both practical and emotional.

The History Behind the Scheme

Between the 1950s and the late 1980s, thousands of Australian women were separated from their children through adoption practices that would not be considered acceptable today. The mechanisms varied: some mothers were told their babies had died. Others signed consent forms while sedated, or were isolated from family and left without legal advice. Young women in particular were subject to enormous institutional pressure from hospitals, church organisations, and government welfare bodies.

In Tasmania, adoptions during this period were governed first by the Adoption of Children Act 1920 and then the Adoption of Children Act 1968 — legislation that operated under the "clean break" theory, which actively suppressed information and discouraged any ongoing connection between birth mothers and their children.

The 2013 National Apology by Prime Minister Julia Gillard formally acknowledged the harm caused by forced adoption practices across Australia. Individual states subsequently developed their own responses. Tasmania's redress scheme, announced in 2025, is the state's mechanism for addressing this history locally.

What the Scheme Offers

Tasmania's Historical Forced Adoptions Redress Scheme provides three forms of support to eligible applicants:

Financial payment. Eligible mothers can receive a fixed payment of up to $45,000. This is not compensation in the legal sense — it does not require proof of specific loss or damages — but is a recognition payment from the state.

Counselling support. Applicants can access funding for psychological services — up to the scheme's set limit — to help process the trauma associated with their experience. For many survivors, the grief associated with forced adoption has been carried privately for decades. Access to specialist trauma counselling is a significant part of the scheme's value.

Personal response. The scheme includes provision for a direct personal response or apology from the Tasmanian Government. For some survivors, official acknowledgment — not just a form letter, but a personal communication that names what happened — is the most meaningful element.

Who Is Eligible

The scheme is designed for mothers who were subject to forced adoption practices in Tasmania. Eligibility criteria focus on:

• Mothers whose children were adopted in Tasmania prior to the legislative changes that introduced genuine informed consent requirements (generally understood as prior to the 1988 Act)
• Where the relinquishment was not freely and fully consented to — where pressure, coercion, deception, or the absence of proper legal advice was a factor

The scheme is administered by the Department of Justice Tasmania. Applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Applicants who are not sure whether their experience qualifies are encouraged to apply anyway and to seek support from Relationships Australia Tasmania (RA Tas) during the process. RA Tas provides the Forced Adoption Support Service (FASS) in Tasmania and can help applicants articulate their experience and gather relevant records.

How to Apply

Applications are made through the Department of Justice's scheme administration. The process involves:

Submitting a written account of your experience, explaining the circumstances of the adoption and why you consider the consent process to have been involuntary or coercive.

Supporting documentation where available — this might include hospital records, adoption agency correspondence, or statutory declarations from witnesses. For many applicants, original documentation from this era is difficult or impossible to obtain, and the scheme takes this reality into account.

Identity verification. You will need to establish your identity and, where possible, your connection to the adoption.

The Department of Justice Tasmania's scheme page includes the application form and contact details for enquiries. RA Tas can assist with the application process and with gathering records held by DECYP or former adoption agencies.

Where to Find Support

The process of applying to the scheme — and the process of revisiting this period of life — can surface significant grief and trauma. Two organisations in particular provide support to people in Tasmania affected by forced adoption:

Relationships Australia Tasmania (RA Tas) operates the Forced Adoption Support Service (FASS) in Tasmania. Services include:

• Specialist counselling for trauma and grief associated with past adoption experiences
• Assistance with records searching and tracing
• Peer support groups for birth parents and adult adoptees in Hobart, Launceston, and Devonport
• Help navigating the redress scheme application

RA Tas is the primary support provider and should be the first contact for anyone affected by forced adoption in Tasmania who doesn't know where to start.

DECYP Post-Adoption Services can assist with accessing records held in the Adoption Information Register — original consent documents, placement records, and other paperwork from the adoption. For mothers who want to understand what records exist, this is the relevant contact.

Anglicare Tasmania has historical connections to adoption records from the era of the Anglican Adoption Agency. People whose adoption involved the Anglican church may find relevant records through Find and Connect, which maintains a historical register of child welfare organisations.

For Adult Adoptees

The scheme is specifically designed for mothers who were subjected to forced practices. However, adult adoptees are often equally affected — separated from birth families, denied knowledge of their origins, and sometimes given false information about their history.

Adult adoptees in Tasmania have their own separate rights under the Adoption Act 1988: once they reach 18, they are entitled to their original birth certificate and can access information about their birth family through DECYP and the Adoption Information Register. Reunification support is available through RA Tas. See the adoption records Tasmania guide for a full explanation of how information access works.

The Broader Context

Tasmania's redress scheme exists alongside similar schemes in other Australian states. Victoria and New South Wales both have long-standing redress arrangements; Tasmania's joins them in providing state-level recognition. The Federal Government's 2013 apology remains the national acknowledgment of the harm caused.

For Tasmanian survivors who have waited years for this recognition, the scheme's arrival represents an official confirmation that what happened to them was wrong and that the state bears responsibility for the institutional practices that enabled it.

Getting Records Before Applying

Many applicants will want to see what records exist before or during the application process. DECYP can provide:

• Non-identifying information about the adoption immediately
• Identifying information subject to any Contact Veto in place
• Original consent documents and placement records from the Adoption Information Register

Requesting records is separate from applying to the redress scheme, and can be done independently. Some applicants find that reviewing the original records — seeing, for the first time, the consent forms they signed or the correspondence between agencies — is a significant part of processing their experience.

If you are a family member or professional supporting someone affected by forced adoption in Tasmania, or if you are a prospective adoptive parent who wants to understand how Tasmania's adoption history shapes the current system, the Tasmania Adoption Process Guide covers both the historical context and the present-day framework.

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