The Catholic Church centralised and coordinated the adoption of all Catholic children through this agency, which was staffed by trained social workers. Its first office was in Young Street in Sydney, and it later moved to West Street, Lewisham. St Anthony's Croydon, which had previously managed adoptions, relinquished its control over them to the central agency. Sister Kathleen Burford writes that in 1972, the central agency arranged 300 adoptions of babies born at St Anthony's.
The CatholicCare Sydney factsheet about Past Adoption Services states that the Adoption Information Act 1990 changed adoption practice from secrecy to openness and enabled people to formally access information about each other. Centacare Sydney took over the auspice of the Catholic Adoption Agency from St Vincent de Paul as Centacare, known since 2011 as CatholicCare, was regarded to be the Church agency with specialist expertise in providing services to children in Out of Home Care and to their families.
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The Find & Connect Support Service can help people who lived in orphanages and children's institutions look for their records.
Last updated:
06 September 2022
Cite this: http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/nsw/NE00112
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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