Add Your Father to Your Birth Certificate
How to add your Father to your original birth certificate.
ARA will be updating and adding information to this page as it’s collected.
ARA advocates for a simplified process to add fathers’ names to original birth certificates, with all states and territories using the same defined, prescribed conditions that recognise the enduring impact of adoption practices.
At this time, each state and territory have different requirements and processes.
Links with information about adding natural parents to original birth certificates - if publicly available, or other links that might be of use.
No specific public information about adding a parent to a pre-adoptive birth certificate is available.
Advice on how to apply *may* be able to be provided by:
Scroll down to ‘Add a parent to pre adoptive Birth Certificate’ here at NSW Government: Certificates and searches for an adoption
No specific public information about adding a parent to a pre-adoptive birth certificate is available.
Advice on how to apply *may* be able to be provided by:
No specific public information about adding a parent to a pre-adoptive birth certificate is available.
Advice on how to apply *may* be able to be provided by:
- BDM Queensland
- Queensland Government Adoption Services
- Jigsaw Queensland
Other information that might be of use:
Jigsaw Queensland – Adoption and DNA
Office of the Information Commissioner Person recorded as father in agency documents
No specific public information about adding a parent to a pre-adoptive birth certificate is available.
Advice on how to apply *may* be able to be provided by:
No specific public information about adding a parent to a pre-adoptive birth certificate is available.
Advice on how to apply *may* be able to be provided by:
- BDM Tasmania
- Tasmanian Government Dept for Education, Children & Young People How to access information about an adoption
- Relationships Australia Tasmania
Scroll down to ‘Add a natural parent to a pre-adoption birth certificate’ here at BDM Victoria: Add a parent to a birth certificate
No specific public information about adding a parent to a pre-adoptive birth certificate is available.
Advice on how to apply *may* be able to be provided by:
- BDM Western Australia
- Western Australian Government Adoption Services
- Adoption Research and Counselling Service Inc (arcs)
- Relationships Australia Western Australia
Also see below for detail on recommendations and the government response after the 2023 Inquiry into past forced adoptive policies and practices
p. 13-14
Recommendation 12: The Attorney General liaise with the Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages to implement a specific process for the names of fathers to be added to the birth certificates of children who were subsequently adopted and for whom fathers’ identities were not originally recorded. This process should be responsive to the needs of people affected by forced adoption, including in the following ways:
– not assume fathers will be alive, located within Australia, literate, or without other impediments to providing sworn evidence in writing
– not assume applicants will have support from or any relationship with the father, or other family members
– not assume fathers will be listed on other documents relating to the adoption of the child
– any application fees be waived
– the cost for any DNA test required not be borne by the applicant.
Government response: Further consideration required
Section 19 of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Act 1998, currently facilitates a process through the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages WA to amend the birth registration information of an adopted person to include information regarding biological paternity following acceptance of DNA evidence from organisations accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities.
Further government consideration of this recommendation is required due to complexities relating to confirming parentage in the absence of available records, in circumstances where the father is deceased, or the family of the father are not aware of or do not support an application.
ARA is collating examples to assist in our call for action on this issue, so if you have experienced problems or had an application to add your father’s name denied by Births, Deaths and Marriages in any jurisdiction, please email details to ARA.
Barriers to adding your Father to your original birth certicate
ARA has identified problems with the current methods used in each state and territory.