In the final episode of the season, Megan and Moyra are joined by the Honorable Naheem Mushin, former Family Court Justice of 21 years, who was appointed by the Attorney General to head the committee investigating the practice of forced adoption and the claims being made by so many women, children and extended families.

He travelled the country multiple times over 2 years to hear submissions in person, and to then write the apology that was ultimately delivered by the then prime minister Julia Gillard in 2013.

He does not hold back revealing his findings and expressing his criticism of a dark chapter in Australian history.

---

The Somebody's Daughter Podcast: Season 1

Hosted by Megan Norris and Moyra Major

Supported by Origins Australia

Audio Production & Sound Design by Wood Work Digital Studio

In the final episode of the season, Megan and Moyra are joined by the Honorable Naheem Mushin, former Family Court Justice of 21 years, who was appointed by the Attorney General to head the committee investigating the practice of forced adoption and the claims being made by so many women, children and extended families.
He travelled the country multiple times over 2 years to hear submissions in person, and to then write the apology that was ultimately delivered by the then prime minister Julia Gillard in 2013.
He does not hold back revealing his findings and expressing his criticism of a dark chapter in Australian history.
---
The Somebody's Daughter Podcast: Season 1
Hosted by Megan Norris and Moyra Major
Supported by Origins Australia
Audio Production &amp; Sound Design by Wood Work Digital Studio

Episode 7: Hon Justice Mushin

Rosalie Wilson shares her own unique experience, firstly living in a home where her mother adopted other children. She recalls how her mother had given birth to two girls (herself & her sister), but instead wanted boys - so she simply decided to adopt one she liked from the public hospital in Melbourne.

Rosalie then goes on to describe the twist of fate that led to her being forced to adopt out her own child as an unwed, teenage mother.

---

The Somebody's Daughter Podcast: Season 1

Hosted by Megan Norris and Moyra Major

Supported by Origins Australia

Audio Production & Sound Design by Wood Work Digital Studio

Rosalie Wilson shares her own unique experience, firstly&nbsp;living in a home where her mother adopted other children. She recalls how her&nbsp;mother had given birth to two girls (herself &amp; her sister), but instead wanted boys - so she simply decided to adopt one she liked from the public hospital in Melbourne.
Rosalie then goes on to describe the twist of fate that led to her being&nbsp;forced to adopt out her own child as an unwed, teenage mother.
---
The Somebody's Daughter Podcast: Season 1
Hosted by Megan Norris and Moyra Major
Supported by Origins Australia
Audio Production &amp; Sound Design by Wood Work Digital Studio

Episode 6: Rosalie Wilson

Megan & Moyra are joined by Sophia Fletcher, who was forcibly adopted during this period.

Born in Brisbane in 1962, she was removed from her birth mother - who she has never found despite 40 years of searching. She speculates that her mother may have been an illegitimate child herself, making it incredibly difficult to connect the lines of her family history.

Sophia shares her subsequent experience with adoptive parents, and how the sequence of events has affected her relationship with her own child.

---

The Somebody's Daughter Podcast: Season 1

Hosted by Megan Norris and Moyra Major

Supported by Origins Australia

Audio Production & Sound Design by Wood Work Digital Studio

Megan &amp; Moyra are joined by Sophia Fletcher, who was forcibly adopted during this period.
Born in Brisbane in 1962, she was removed from her birth mother - who she has never found despite 40 years of searching. She speculates that her mother may have been an illegitimate child herself, making it incredibly difficult to connect the lines of her family history.
Sophia shares her subsequent experience with adoptive parents, and how the sequence of events has affected her relationship with her own child.
---
The Somebody's Daughter Podcast: Season 1
Hosted by Megan Norris and Moyra Major
Supported by Origins Australia
Audio Production &amp; Sound Design by Wood Work Digital Studio

Episode 5: Sophia Fletcher

In 1969, Queensland teenager Dianne Wells was in love and dreaming of a happy new life with her first boyfriend where she’d have children and a home of her own.

Tragically, those dreams came crashing down when the sixteen-year-old discovered she was pregnant out of wedlock.

Abandoned by her partner, and shamed by both families, Dianne was sent to live with strangers in another town where she found herself at the mercy of a system which sanctioned the theft of more than 150,000 newborn babies – all callously and systematically taken from young, vulnerable unmarried mothers under the Government’s forced adoption practices of the era.

Today, Dianne revisits that dark chapter in her life and tells us about the anguish of losing her much-wanted baby daughter and the lifelong destruction their forced separation caused to her.

---

The Somebody's Daughter Podcast: Season 1

Hosted by Megan Norris and Moyra Major

Supported by Origins Australia

Audio Production & Sound Design by Wood Work Digital Studio

In 1969, Queensland teenager Dianne Wells was in love and dreaming of a happy new life with her first boyfriend where she&rsquo;d have children and a home of her own.
Tragically, those dreams came crashing down when the sixteen-year-old discovered she was pregnant out of wedlock.
Abandoned by her partner, and shamed by both families, Dianne was sent to live with strangers in another town where she found herself at the mercy of a system which sanctioned the theft of more than 150,000 newborn babies &ndash; all callously and systematically taken from young, vulnerable unmarried mothers under the Government&rsquo;s forced adoption practices of the era.
Today, Dianne revisits that dark chapter in her life and tells us about the anguish of losing her much-wanted baby daughter and the lifelong destruction their forced separation caused to her.
---
The Somebody's Daughter Podcast: Season 1
Hosted by Megan Norris and Moyra Major
Supported by Origins Australia
Audio Production &amp; Sound Design by Wood Work Digital Studio

Episode 4: Dianne Wells

My newborn daughter was stolen from me – and returned to steal my life.

In 1973, new mum Linda Davis, woke from a caesarean to discover that her newborn daughter was missing – one of 150,000 Australian babies stolen from young unmarried mothers under the Government’s illegal forced adoption practices of the era.

Today, more than fifty years later, Linda, 70, shares her horror story on a new true crime podcast aimed at shedding new light on the crimes Australia tried to hide.

“I went into hospital expecting to come home with my baby, only to find she had been earmarked for adoption and the only person who did not know about this, was me,” Linda reveals on the Somebody’s Daughter Podcast, which delves into the mass destruction caused by historic forced adoption practices on the lives of thousands of grieving mothers, their stolen children and their wider families.

In the podcast, hosted by Gold Coast radio personality Moyra Major and multi-award-winning true crime author Megan Norris, Linda reveals for the first time the trauma of being shamed, shunned and punished because she was pregnant out of wedlock.

Linda was seventeen in 1973 when she discovered she was four months pregnant from a single sexual encounter with her first boyfriend.

Immediately abandoned by her baby’s father, she was forced to spend her pregnancy confined to her bedroom to avoid the shame illegitimacy would bring on her family.

“I was made to stay there, even on Christmas Day, and only allowed out to attend medical appointments,’” she tells the podcast.

“My mother would bring the car into the garage and sneak me out to the doctor’s so nobody would see me.”

The shaming continued at the GP’s surgery where she was forced to sit away from the married mothers and ignored.

When Linda finally gave birth at Paddington Hospital in Sydney, her newborn daughter was immediately hidden in the hospital nursery where the teenager’s please to see her child fell on deaf ears.

‘I remember a social worker raising the subject of adoption, and when I refused, she told me I’d be the worst mother in the world,” she says.

Dosed on a powerful cocktail of psychotropic drugs, sedatives and drugs to suppress her breast milk, Linda was too drugged to remember signing her much-wanted baby for adoption.

“I returned home without my baby and the subject was never mentioned again – it was as if it hadn’t happened,” she says.

This unspoken grief plunged Linda onto a roller coaster of depression, anxiety and therapy as she struggled to come to terms with a loss too taboo to talk about.

It would be another two decades before a now married Linda was finally reunited with her long-lost daughter -though it did not bring the happy ending she’d dreamed of.

“She told me I was no more than an incubator and only wanted to meet me to find out her medical history,” Linda says, by now forty and expecting her second child.

Hoping to strengthen the bond with her adopted daughter, the family moved to Queensland where Linda later discovered her first born had embarked on an illicit affair with her husband that was about to bring her life crashing down.

“She took my husband, my family home – everything,” says Linda who immediately packed her bags and left, reliving her loss all over again.

To hear this tragic story of heartache, loss and the ultimate betrayal, tune into Somebody’s Daughter, a series created by Origins Australia (Supporting People Separated By Adoption).

“Forced Adoption remains one of the biggest human rights issues in Australian contemporary history, yet despite the 2012 National Apology from then Prime Minister Julia Gillard there has only been limited redress and nobody has ever been held accountable for what they did to us,” says Origins CEO Lily Arthur, whose newborn son was stolen from her in 1967.

“That’s why this podcast series is so unique – it gives a voice to casualties like myself and Linda, who were shamed into silence for years, in effect protecting the perpetrators of these crimes.”

Arthur, who also lives on the Gold Coast, has taken the fight for justice which is currently before the Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.

---

The Somebody's Daughter Podcast: Season 1

Hosted by Megan Norris and Moyra Major

Supported by Origins Australia

Audio Production & Sound Design by Wood Work Digital Studio

My newborn daughter was stolen from me &ndash; and returned to steal my life.
In 1973, new mum Linda Davis, woke from a caesarean to discover that her newborn daughter was missing &ndash; one of 150,000 Australian babies stolen from young unmarried mothers under the Government&rsquo;s illegal forced adoption practices of the era.
Today, more than fifty years later, Linda, 70, shares her horror story on a new true crime podcast aimed at shedding new light on the crimes Australia tried to hide.
&ldquo;I went into hospital expecting to come home with my baby, only to find she had been earmarked for adoption and the only person who did not know about this, was me,&rdquo; Linda reveals on the Somebody&rsquo;s Daughter Podcast, which delves into the mass destruction caused by historic forced adoption practices on the lives of thousands of grieving mothers, their stolen children and their wider families.
In the podcast, hosted by Gold Coast radio personality Moyra Major and multi-award-winning true crime author Megan Norris, Linda reveals for the first time the trauma of being shamed, shunned and punished because she was pregnant out of wedlock.
Linda was seventeen in 1973 when she discovered she was four months pregnant from a single sexual encounter with her first boyfriend.
Immediately abandoned by her baby&rsquo;s father, she was forced to spend her pregnancy confined to her bedroom to avoid the shame illegitimacy would bring on her family.
&ldquo;I was made to stay there, even on Christmas Day, and only allowed out to attend medical appointments,&rsquo;&rdquo; she tells the podcast.
&ldquo;My mother would bring the car into the garage and sneak me out to the doctor&rsquo;s so nobody would see me.&rdquo;
The shaming continued at the GP&rsquo;s surgery where she was forced to sit away from the married mothers and ignored.
When Linda finally gave birth at Paddington Hospital in Sydney, her newborn daughter was immediately hidden in the hospital nursery where the teenager&rsquo;s please to see her child fell on deaf ears.
&lsquo;I remember a social worker raising the subject of adoption, and when I refused, she told me I&rsquo;d be the worst mother in the world,&rdquo; she says.
Dosed on a powerful cocktail of psychotropic drugs, sedatives and drugs to suppress her breast milk, Linda was too drugged to remember signing her much-wanted baby for adoption.
&ldquo;I returned home without my baby and the subject was never mentioned again &ndash; it was as if it hadn&rsquo;t happened,&rdquo; she says.
This unspoken grief plunged Linda onto a roller coaster of depression, anxiety and therapy as she struggled to come to terms with a loss too taboo to talk about.
It would be another two decades before a now married Linda was finally reunited with her long-lost daughter -though it did not bring the happy ending she&rsquo;d dreamed of.
&ldquo;She told me I was no more than an incubator and only wanted to meet me to find out her medical history,&rdquo; Linda says, by now forty and expecting her second child.
Hoping to strengthen the bond with her adopted daughter, the family moved to Queensland where Linda later discovered her first born had embarked on an illicit affair with her husband that was about to bring her life crashing down.
&ldquo;She took my husband, my family home &ndash; everything,&rdquo; says Linda who immediately packed her bags and left, reliving her loss all over again.
To hear this tragic story of heartache, loss and the ultimate betrayal, tune into Somebody&rsquo;s Daughter, a series created by Origins Australia (Supporting People Separated By Adoption).
&ldquo;Forced Adoption remains one of the biggest human rights issues in Australian contemporary history, yet despite the 2012 National Apology from then Prime Minister Julia Gillard there has only been limited redress and nobody has ever been held accountable for what they did to us,&rdquo; says Origins CEO Lily Arthur, whose newborn son was stolen from her in 1967.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why this podcast series is so unique &ndash; it gives a voice to casualties like myself and Linda, who were shamed into silence for years, in effect protecting the perpetrators of these crimes.&rdquo;
Arthur, who also lives on the Gold Coast, has taken the fight for justice which is currently before the Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.
---
The Somebody's Daughter Podcast: Season 1
Hosted by Megan Norris and Moyra Major
Supported by Origins Australia
Audio Production &amp; Sound Design by Wood Work Digital Studio

Episode 3: Linda Davis

Between 1940 and the late 1980’s, 250,000 newborn babies were surrendered for adoption – most of them unlawfully stolen from young unmarried mothers in one of the most shocking mass violations of human rights in contemporary Australian history.

One of those babies was Lily Arthur’s eight-day-old son.

In this episode, Megan Norris and Moyra Major speak at length with Lily about her experience. Lily recalls how she went on to search for her son, against the odds.. and why she decided to sue the State of Queensland. In the process, she uncovered startling coincidences dating back decades. 

Megan explains how the whole process effectively left these mothers primed for a lifetime of abuse.. and Lily is confident that whole saga has been a cover up from the get go.

---

The Somebody's Daughter Podcast: Season 1

Hosted by Megan Norris and Moyra Major

Supported by Origins Australia

Audio Production & Sound Design by Wood Work Digital Studio

Between 1940 and the late 1980&rsquo;s, 250,000 newborn babies were surrendered for adoption &ndash; most of them unlawfully stolen from young unmarried mothers in one of the most shocking mass violations of human rights in contemporary Australian history. One of those babies was Lily Arthur&rsquo;s eight-day-old son.
In this episode, Megan Norris and Moyra Major speak at length with Lily about her experience. Lily recalls how she went on to search for her son, against the odds.. and why she decided to sue the State of Queensland. In the process, she uncovered startling coincidences dating back decades.&nbsp;
Megan explains how the whole process effectively left these mothers primed for a lifetime of abuse.. and Lily is confident that whole saga has been a cover up from the get go.
---
The Somebody's Daughter Podcast: Season 1
Hosted by Megan Norris and Moyra Major
Supported by Origins Australia
Audio Production &amp; Sound Design by Wood Work Digital Studio

Episode 2: Lily Arthur

Between 1959 and the late 1980’s more than 250,000 Australian babies were surrendered for adoption – most of them illegally stolen at birth from young, vulnerable unmarried mothers.

Now, with a campaign underway to expose the dark truth behind the crimes Australia tried to hide, veteran Gold Coast radio personality, Moyra Major and award-winning author, Megan Norris, launch a controversial new true crime podcast highlighting the horrors of the illegal forced adoption practices of past governments which ruined the lives of thousands of mothers, adoptees and their wider families.

Major and Norris bring a wealth of print and broadcasting experience to the podcast.

They have spent the past year researching and interviewing the survivors of an atrocity once described by prominent Australian adoption expert, Dr Geoffrey Rickarby, as the ‘single mother’s holocaust.’

In the first episode, Major and Norris explain this shocking chapter in detail, and how they came to be involved in the project.

---

The Somebody's Daughter Podcast: Season 1

Hosted by Megan Norris and Moyra Major

Supported by Origins Australia

Audio Production & Sound Design by Wood Work Digital Studio

Between 1959 and the late 1980&rsquo;s more than 250,000 Australian babies were surrendered for adoption &ndash; most of them illegally stolen at birth from young, vulnerable unmarried mothers.
Now, with a campaign underway to expose the dark truth behind the crimes Australia tried to hide, veteran Gold Coast radio personality, Moyra Major and award-winning author, Megan Norris, launch a controversial new true crime podcast highlighting the horrors of the illegal forced adoption practices of past governments which ruined the lives of thousands of mothers, adoptees and their wider families.
Major and Norris bring a wealth of print and broadcasting experience to the podcast.
They have spent the past year researching and interviewing the survivors of an atrocity once described by prominent Australian adoption expert, Dr Geoffrey Rickarby, as the &lsquo;single mother&rsquo;s holocaust.&rsquo;
In the first episode, Major and Norris explain this shocking chapter in detail, and how they came to be involved in the project.
---
The Somebody's Daughter Podcast: Season 1
Hosted by Megan Norris and Moyra Major
Supported by Origins Australia
Audio Production &amp; Sound Design by Wood Work Digital Studio

Episode 1: Megan & Moyra

Coming soon: 150,000 stolen babies - The truth behind the crimes Australia tried to hide.

Coming soon: 150,000 stolen babies - The truth behind the crimes Australia tried to hide.

Introducing: "Somebody's Daughter"

150,000 stolen babies - The truth behind the crimes Australia tried to hide

150,000 stolen babies - The truth behind the crimes Australia tried to hide

Somebody’s Daughter

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