Operation Safe Haven: Sydney grandmother Catherine Lucre opens her home to abandoned babies

A WOMAN who almost ‘ended it all’ for herself and her kids says the authorities ‘just don’t get it’. That’s why she’s taking the baby abandonment problem into her own hands.

Following 2 abandoned babies in Sydney being found recently, Catherine Lucre, grandmother from Grasmere, has set up a campaign and Facebook page for mothers to anonymously leave their babies with her so she can pass it on to authorities and it can be cared for. Pictured is Catherine Lucre with daughters Liz Lucre(white top), Rebecca Gourlie and 19 month old granddaughter Chloe Gourlie.

CATHERINE Lucre never wanted to abandon her children but she can understand women who do.

There was a time when she, like mums who give up their kids, made a decision that just didn’t make sense.

“I had a plan,” she tells news.com.au.

“I was ready to put the kids in the car, turn the motor on, and that was going to be the end of us.”

The Sydney midwife can’t explain why she had thoughts that brought her “pretty close to doing something very, very stupid”.

It was 23 years ago, after she had given birth to her fourth child, but before she realised she was suffering from post-natal depression.

If it wasn’t for her mum showing up the day she had planned to “end it all”, and taking her into the kitchen where she cried and cried, and then to a doctor, she believes she wouldn’t still be here, and her children might not either.

Catherine Lucre has set up a campaign and Facebook page for mothers to anonymously leave their babies with her.

When Mrs Lucre found out about two babies abandoned in Sydney in recent weeks — the little boy miraculously found alive in a drain at Quakers Hill, and the body of a little girl buried in the sand at Maroubra — it hit her harder than most.

“Even though it doesn’t make sense — and I understand that it’s hard to understand for some people — I get how women can contemplate doing these things to their babies,” she says.

Mrs Lucre has harnessed the compassion her own experience equipped her with and used it to launch Operation Safe Haven in the wake of these discoveries.

The 55-year-old grandmother has set up a Facebook group to get the word out she is allowing mothers to leave their children with her anonymously, and she would then get them to care.

She understands it’s a controversial move. The debate over the introduction of baby safe havens and how to handle these situations has been raging for weeks since these two high profile cases emerged.

The baby boy rescued from a drain at Quakers Hill was a shock to the community.

Police still don’t know how the baby girl found dead at Maroubra Beach came to be abandoned. Pic: Cameron Richardson

But Mrs Lucre just wants to offer some help in a situation that doesn’t have a logical solution and authorities don’t seem to know what to do about.

Authorities aren’t sitting back doing nothing. Today The Daily Telegraph uncovered their investigations surrounding the two Sydney cases had led Attorney-General Brad Hazzard to announce a crackdown on mothers not registering births.

It’s a move designed to close a loophole in the system that could allow more abandonments to occur, but Mrs Lucre and her supporters say it misses the point.

“I just think they don’t get it,” Mrs Lucre says.

“It’s missing the point but I understand it’s tough to address. You can’t put a logical solution into an illogical situation.

“For these women there is no solution, whether it’s that they’re concealing pregnancy or depression’s taken hold of them, they cannot see another way out. I’m hoping that I can help someone out of that dark place.”

A tribute left on South Maroubra beach. Pic: John Appleyard

The scene where the newborn boy was found at Quakers Hill.

Mrs Lucre has had thousands of people reach out from all over the country who want to help fund her project, donate items to help care for abandoned babies, and many who want to set up their own safe havens.

She has also spoken to police and the Department of Family and Child Services to make sure her project is all OK and she’s been in contact with Tasmanian Senator Helen Polley who has been campaigning for years to introduce baby safe havens in Australia.

She’s yet to be contacted by any local mothers looking for help, or had any babies dropped on her doorstep in Grasmere.

“But as long as the option is there, maybe it will help someone,” she says.