Australia’s Secret History: The Women Who Had To Give Up Their Babies

Journalist, Amelia Oberhardt, thought she knew her mum, until she died.

At her mum’s wake, Oberhardt discovered a photo of her mother as a teenager, wearing a wedding ring, standing beside a man she did not know and cuddling an unknown baby.

In her quest for closure, Oberhardt uncovered something both extraordinary and surprisingly common: the hidden histories of secret pregnancies, forced adoptions and the challenges young women faced in impossible situations.

This incredible story has been transformed into Secrets We Keep: Shame, Lies & Family a new original audio docuseries from the LiSTNR News team. The first two episodes of the nine-part season are available now on LiSTNTR.

“I think there was a whole generation of women that had been told to sit down and shut up and never talk about it again and the ramifications for that I think have been enormous.”

Amelia Oberhardt

“It’s called the historical forced adoption era because if you were an unwed mother or single, you had no option but to give away your baby.”

In this episode of The Briefing Podcast, Katrina Blowers sits down with Oberhardt to discover how she felt when she discovered her family and her family’s story was not what she believed.