More victims of forced adoption share their stories on ninth anniversary of federal apology

“The hurt will always be there.”: More Tasmanian women have come forward to share their stories of forced adoption, on the ninth anniversary of the federal government’s apology. THEIR STORIES >>

JENNY Allford was just 18 years old when she was date-raped.

Pregnant as a result, she “didn’t have a clue what was happening” when the time came to give birth, her daughter whisked away to “go to a good home”.

The year was 1964.

Sally Jones* was also 18 when she gave birth in 1980, taking her little boy home for an entire month before Catholic nuns bullied her into relinquishing him to “a well-off family”.

Mrs Allford and Mrs Jones are the two latest women to come forward to tell their stories, on the ninth anniversary of the federal government’s apology to victims of forced adoptions.

But they are just the tip of the iceberg.

At least hundreds of Tasmanian women are still holding onto their secrets, shamed into silence for decades.

On March 21, 2013, then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered an apology for the practice of forced adoptions, creating a “lifelong legacy of pain and suffering”.

The Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivering the National Apology on Forced Adoption at Parliament House in Canberra.

On Monday, nine years to the day, a small group of women met at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens Tree of Hope Memorial to commemorate the apology.

Mrs Allford said she was coerced into adopting her baby in Hamilton, New Zealand, after she was raped on the way home from a date.

“They said ‘the child’s going to go to a good home’. She didn’t go to a good home. She went to a terrible home,” she said.

Mrs Allford never told her secret to anyone – not even her husband or her other children – for 28 years.

It was only when her adopted daughter visited a clairvoyant – who told her she’d find her mother through a cousin – that the two were reunited in 1993.

“When she found me, it was as if I had a weight taken off me,” she said.

Mrs Allford has finally been able to start healing since attending a regular counselling group at Relationships Australia Tasmania over the past six years.

Mrs Jones said her son was taken from her in 1980, in what was believed to be the last forced adoption in Tasmania from the Royal Hobart Hospital obstetric division in Gore Street.

She said she still carried the trauma, decades after being bullied by nuns into giving up her son after bringing him home for the first month.

Victims of forced adoption celebrate 10 years since apology

They said ‘we had the family picked out and you’ve broken their heart’,” she said.

“They were a well-off family from Launceston.”

Mrs Jones said she was pressured to the point that she “caved in”.

“This is the first time I’ve talked about it openly,” she said, adding that while her family and other children knew, “it was never talked about”.

“The hurt will always be there.”

Mrs Jones has joined a group of Tasmanian women suing the state government, the Salvation Army, and other agencies associated with the historical practice.

Robyn Cohen said there were plenty of Tasmanian mothers “who have never talked to anyone about it”.

“Their husbands might not know, their children don’t know, their relatives don’t know, it’s a huge load of shame and guilt to carry around,” she said.

Mrs Cohen said the Tasmanian government needed to “step up to the plate” and adopt a redress scheme, similar to that recently announced in Victoria.

“It all depends on how much they want to fight it before they finally do the right thing.”

The Tree of Hope installation was commissioned by the Tasmanian government after former Premier Lara Giddings delivered an apology in parliament during 2012.

* Name changed to protect identity due to provisions under Tasmanian legislation.

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