Re-Issue: Forced adoptions in Australia, could it happen again?
Australian True Crime
Meshel Laurie
4.6 • 979 Ratings
🗓️ 21 September 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode was originally published on June 19th, 2022.
Australia in the mid twentieth century has a dark history of forced adoption. Women who did not fit the moral expectations of the time (usually those who were young and unmarried) had their children taken from them at birth, often with little to no information left behind for them to be reunited.
Our guest today, Lily Arthur, is one story of many, and it is an absolutely heartbreaking one. It is also a story of determination and grit, and the long fight Lily went through to seek justice for what happened to her and many others.
Links:
Lily's book: Dirty Laundry: The Crimes A Country Tried To Hide
QLD Judgement can be found here: https://www.queenslandjudgments.com.au/caselaw/qsc/2004/456
Origins SPSA (Supporting people separated by adoption): https://www.originsnsw.com/
For Support:
Lifeline on 13 11 14
13 YARN on 13 92 76 (24/7 crisis support phone line for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples)
1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732
Blue Knot Helpline: 1300 657 380
CREDITS:
Host: Meshel Laurie
Guest: Lily Arthur
Executive Producer/Editor: Matthew Tankard
GET IN TOUCH:
https://www.australiantruecrimethepodcast.com/
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Transcript
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