Persons Missing Queensland Jigsaw Qld Website URL: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~jigsaw/index.htm "Jigsaw was established in Australia and New Zealand during 1976. Jigsaw Queensland was incorporated in 1988 after 10 years of operation. In that time we have assisted over 17,000 people in their search for their biological heritage. Jigsaw was instrumental in encouraging a change in state laws regarding access to identifying information by lobbying politicians and running media and public education campaigns. Fifty thousand adoptions have occurred in Queensland since 1910" Source: Jigsaw Qld June 2002 Jigsaw Queensland Inc. P.O. Box 55, Roma Street Qld 4003 Australia Phone: 07-3875-1909 International: +61 7-3875-1909 Fax: +61 7-3875-1161 Email: jigsaw@ozemail.com.au "Jigsaw Qld has support groups throughout Queensland. These groups are run by members of the adoption community. The main General meeting is held on the first Wednesday of the Month at Spring Hill, Brisbane.The general meeting starts at 7.30pm and is open to all. Non-members are very welcome. Please contact the Brisbane office for locations/numbers." Due to limited resources and legal requirements we can only act for financial members over the age of 18 and for those where the adoption took place within the state of Queensland, Australia. Jigsaw’s contact register has over 17,000 people seeking knowledge about their biological heritage. When Adopted Persons and Birth Parents are matched, Jigsaw corresponds with each of the enquirers and if required will assist with the reunion and provide counselling. Source: Jigsaw Qld June 2002 doption- Jigsaw Queensland Inc. Post Adoption Resource Centre PO Box 55 Roma QLD 4003 Phone: 07-3358-6666 Phone: 07-3254-0336 doption Privacy Protection Group Inc. PO Box 470 Stones Corner QLD 4120 Phone: 07-3843-2388 If you want a copy of the Act, you can find it here: Queensland ADOPTION OF CHILDREN ACT 1964 Reprinted as in force on 7 March 2002 Adoption of Children Act PDF File doption of Children Regulation 1999 Adopt Child Reg 99 PDF History of Adoption The Orphanages Act 1879 focused on improving the management of institutions that provided care for orphans and deserted or neglected children under the age of twelve years. Children could obtain a licence to live with any trustworthy and respectable person willing to receive and take charge of them. This license was granted for a period not exceeding six months and could be renewed or revoked at any time. A child could also be contracted as an apprentice to any trade or service for a period of up to five years. Children subject to contracts were visited regularly by the authorities until they reached sixteen years of age. Whether children's placements were arranged by license or contract, children over the age of twelve years were entitled to be paid wages, comparable to the wages paid to any child in employment. Children granted a licence or subject to a contract that enabled them to live with a family did not have their names legally changed and were not entitled to inherit from the family taking charge of them. These placements were often privately arranged by parents and many children were raised outside their own families without knowledge of their ‘adoptive’ status. In order to prevent the exploitation of children as a source of cheap labour, the maximum age at which children could be adopted was lowered to five years in 1885. The Infant Life Protection Act 1905 The Infant Life Protection Act 1905 made provision for the adoption of illegitimate children. Before 1921, many "adoptions" were merely private arrangements. A private agreement was signed by the parties concerned, with solicitors making contracts or articles of adoption. In some instances, the Police Department which administered the Infant Life Protection Act 1905 was notified that a child had been placed for adoption. After 1918, adoptive parents had only to notify the Director, State Children Department, which was still formalised by private agreement by the parties concerned. In 1921, an amendment to the Infant Life Protection Act made provision for the legal adoption of children under the age of ten years. This meant that prospective adoptive parents were required to apply to the State Children's Department which assessed applicants' circumstances, character and suitability to adopt a child. Birth parents were required to sign a consent form renouncing any legal claim upon the child. An agreement of adoption was signed by the Director and the child's adoptive parents, and was registered by the Registry of the Births, Deaths and Marriages. The surname of the child became that of the adoptive parents. However, legal rights of inheritance were not conferred by adoption. The Adoption of Children Act 1935 In 1935, the Adoption of Children Act 1935 was introduced after a study of similar Acts in other countries. Adoption was made an administrative procedure with the Director, State Children Department, having the authority to make adoption orders. A child could be adopted up to twenty-one years of age, but if over twelve years of age at the time of adoption, the child’s consent was required. Adopted children were given the same rights as a child born within a marriage, in terms of name, care, custody and to some extent, rights of inheritance. The Act required an Adoption Register to be kept by the Registrar-General with a note of the adoption being made against adopted children's original birth entry. The Act prescribed that information regarding a child's adoption could be released only by Supreme Court order. The Adoption of Children Act was later amended in 1941 and 1952. The Adoption of Children Act 1964 As a result of co-operation to establish uniform adoption laws throughout Australia, Queensland introduced the Adoption of Children Act 1964. Under this Act, the Director, Department of Children’s Services, continued to be the sole authority to control and make adoption orders in the State. Although private adoption agencies operated in other parts of Australia, privately arranged adoptions became illegal in Queensland. Private arrangements still took place if a child was to be adopted by a relative. However, only a person authorised by the Director could witness a parent's consent to an adoption made specifically in favour of a relative. The Act and Regulation provided for anonymity between birth parents and adoptive parents. Under the previous Act and Regulation, adoptive parents were provided with the adoption order which included the name of the child's birth parent or parents. Under the provisions of the current Adoption of Children Act 1964 adoption orders are retained by the Department. Adoption Orders can be accessed only on the order of a Supreme Court Judge, until the adopted person attains eighteen years of age. Once an adoption order is made, adoptive parents are advised by letter that the adoption of their child is finalised and that a copy of the child's birth entry can be obtained from the Registrar-General’s Office. All parents, including adoptive parents, rely on the birth entry as evidence of their legal relationship with their child. In 1967, the Act was amended to clarify the rights of adopted children to participate in a transfer of property in the case of intestacy. In 1974, the maximum age at which a child could be adopted was reduced to eighteen years and in 1978, the use of the word illegitimate was eliminated from the Adoption of Children Act 1964 by the Status of Children Act. An Adoption Contact Register was established in the Department of Children's Services in May 1987 to provide for the reunion of adopted persons and birth parents following matched listings of all eligible parties. The Contact Register has been replaced by amendments made to the Act in 1990 and 1991. In 1988 the Act was also amended to enable a custodial birth parent and a step-parent to jointly adopt the custodial parent's child, or for the child's step-parent to be the only adopting parent. The Adoption of Children Act 1964 was further amended in June 1988, to allow for the establishment of separate General Children's Adoption, Special Needs Children's Adoption, Relative Children's Adoption and Foreign Children's Adoption applicant lists and for an Adoptions Appeals Tribunal. The Tribunal enabled adoption applicants who had been unfavourably assessed to appeal the decision. The Tribunal has since been replaced by the appeal provisions in the Children's Commissioner and Children's Services Appeals Tribunals Act 1996. Amendments made to the Adoption of Children Act 1964 since 1990 Amendments made to the Adoption of Children Act 1964 in 1990 and 1991 made provision for adults who were adopted and birth parents to receive identifying information about each other, in certain circumstances. Provision was also made for eligible relatives and adoptive parents to receive identifying information in certain circumstances. The Act was also amended at this time to allowed for bequests to be made to adopted persons whose identity is unknown to a testator. The amendments made to the Act in 1990 and 1991 provide people who are adopted and birth parents who sign an adoption consent after June 1991 with an unqualified entitlement to access identifying information once the adopted person attains 18 years of age. The Adoption of Children Act 1964 was amended by the Adoption of Children (Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption) Amendment Act 1999 in order to facilitate Queensland's implementation of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption. Source: Queensland Government, Adoption Services In July 2002, Families Minister Judy Spence will release a community consultation paper on what her department claims is a "comprehensive review" of the Adoption of Children Act 1964. Source: The Courier Mail, 11/6/02, p11

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