Marg Watson, of Kiama, has worked with the not-for-profit service since it opened in 1991, and estimated one in 15 Australians were affected by adoption in some way. She will be on hand at the Fairy Meadow Community Centre on Tuesday evening, for a counselling and information session.

She said many parents were still searching for their lost children or vice versa, due to past legislation forcing many babies to be unwillingly adopted out.

‘‘Just in the last couple of months, a 65-year-old lady has come to us only learning about her adoption at Christmas last year,’’ said Ms Watson. With the temptation to use Google or social media to track someone down, she said PARC cautions against this as it was often an emotional union and distressing to ‘‘barge in’’ on someone’s life.

 Instead Ms Watson advises parents, siblings, or adoptees to use the service as a buffer with support offered to both parties.

Wollongong author Gwen Wilson will speak at the meeting about her personal experience of finding her adult son decades after being made to give him up when she fell pregnant as a teenager. Her connection was through change to legislation, that lifted the lid on what was previously kept secret.

‘‘One of the features of the forced adoption era was that the records were sealed. So the relinquishing parents didn’t know where the child had gone, the adoptive parents didn’t know where their baby had come from, and the child themselves was meant to never know who their [biological] parents were.’’

  Information and bookings visit http://bit.ly/Adoption-Wollongong or call 1300 659 814