Hobart
Debra Hocking, born in Hobart, forcibly removed from her family at 18 months, talks about finding her mother:
"I went to that address where I used to go as a child. Walked in as an adult and I stood at the enquiries desk and I explained my situation. I said 'Now I need some assistance here, see I want to find my family, okay?' And they said 'We're sorry but that's privileged Government information.' Right. Is that right? And she said 'Yeah.' And I said 'So you won't help me?' She said 'I'm sorry we can't.'
So I did a sit-in protest. I went along every day to that office and I sat in the foyer just with a bit of attitude. Every day for two weeks until finally this gentleman came out. Tall and big and he was a bit scary. And he came over to me and he said 'Come with me.' So I followed him and we went into what looked like some kind of filing room or library or something like that. And on the desk there was a pad and a pen and a file saying 'Debra Anne Cooper.'
And I thought - god, that's it. And he looked at me and he said 'I can only give you half an hour.' And he walked out and closed the door. Now what that man did was totally illegal. He could have lost his job."
Debra Hocking, Debra Hocking, Stolen Generation Testimonies, [20]-[21]
http://stolengenerationstestimonies.com/index.php/testimonies/973.html