The Adoption of Children Act 1935 (Act no. 26 Geo.V. No.7) with the full title "An Act to Make Provision for the Adoption of Infants, and for purposes incidental thereto or consequent thereon" commenced on 1 February 1936. It provided for the adoption of children up to the age of 21 years who had never married, and for rights of succession to the adoptive parents. It also established a basis for sound adoption practices protecting the child, the natural parent and the adopting parents. The Director of the State Children Department was empowered to make adoption orders, rather than adoption being made a judicial process. The Director had the power to dispense with the consent of the child's parents or guardian if satisfied that a parent or guardian had abandoned or neglected the child, or was incapable of giving consent. This act was repealed in 1964 and replaced with the Adoption of Children Act 1964 (Act no. 54/1964).
1936 - 1965 Adoption of Children Act 1935
1965 - 2010 Adoption of Children Act 1964
2009 - Adoption Act 2009
Sources used to compile this entry: To Remove and Protect: laws that changed Aboriginal lives, Queensland Legislation, 2009, http://aiatsis.gov.au/collections/collections-online/digitised-collections/remove-and-protect/queensland; Department of Families, Missing pieces: information to assist former residents of children's institutions to access records, State of Queensland, 2001. p.103.; Law Research Service, Melbourne Law School, Law Library, The University of Melbourne. 'Find and Connect Project - Queensland Legislation', 4 April 2013, held in the project files at the University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre.
Prepared by: Lee Butterworth
Created: 17 May 2011, Last modified: 12 May 2017
Last updated: 7 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/qld/biogs/QE00016b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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