Please contact the CatholicCare Victoria Adoption Information Service:
Postal Address: 3 Wingfield Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Phone: (03) 9689 3888
Email: adoptions@ccam.org.au
Website: https://www.ccam.org.au/page/120/adoption-information-service/
These records are held by CatholicCare Victoria (2011 - current).
CatholicCare Victoria holds copies of records of adoptions dating back to 1907 and up to the present day. These adoptions were arranged by St Joseph’s Foundling Hospital, St Joseph’s Babies’ Home, the Catholic Social Services Bureau, the Catholic Family Welfare Bureau, Centacare Catholic Family Services and CatholicCare.
Records are held in individual client files. Access to records is governed by the Adoption Act 1984.
In evidence given to the Inquiry into responses to historical forced adoption in Victoria, CatholicCare stated that it has an onsite and an offsite archive of about 20,000 records, including ‘10,000 adoptions in the past, in the 1960s and 1970s, before that’ (Victorian Parliament, 2021, p.277).