Lyn Austin was taken from her mother when she was 10 years old.

Key points: Victoria is the only state without a redress scheme for the Stolen Generations

Victoria is the only state without a redress scheme for the Stolen Generations Members of the Stolen Generations have rallied outside Parliament calling for reparations

Members of the Stolen Generations have rallied outside Parliament calling for reparations The Victorian Aboriginal Health Service says more resources are needed to provide better support

She remembers being driven away in an old Holden, seeing her mother crying by the side of the road and wondering why she was upset.

"I only learned years later that I wasn't returning, and I never returned back to my mother," she said.

Her mother died before they could be reunited.

As if the trauma of separation was not enough, the farm near Geelong where she was sent became a scene of abuse.

"The experience on the farm was very, very bad," she said.

"We were beaten regularly, we were starved. I used to go to school and pinch lunches out of lunch boxes because I was always hungry.

"It's something you live with, and … for many, many years, you have the horrors and the torment.

"I might be sleeping, dozing off, and wake up thinking about that rotten farm."

Her experience turned her into a campaigner for justice for the Stolen Generations.

Aunty Lyn protested in Canberra when John Howard refused to apologise for the forced removal of Aboriginal children, and returned years later to hear Kevin Rudd say sorry.

It has been a decade since that apology, and 20 years since the landmark Bringing Them Home report called for such an action among its 54 recommendations.

But Ms Austin feels the recommendations have been forgotten in her home state.

"We're still struggling. They've got redress everywhere else and compensation happening, but nothing here for Victoria," she said.

"It'll prove that we were hurt in care. Abused physically and sexually. Everyone's got their stories [and] deals with their grief and sadness in many ways."

Rally calls for action on redress scheme

While Victoria is leading the way in treaty talks with its first peoples, it lags behind others when it comes to redress for the Stolen Generations as the only state without a scheme.

Members of the Stolen Generations rallied at State Parliament today, calling on the Andrews Government to act.

Eunice Wright is fighting ailing health, but was determined to be among the crowd.

Eunice Wright did not let ill health stop her from attending the rally. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

Her daughter Tina Wright said her mother had written a letter to Aboriginal Affairs Minister Natalie Hutchins, and would have crawled there to take part.

"It's not about the money, it will never be about the money," she said.

"It's about the justice, of the wrongs that have been done."

Speaking at the rally, Victoria's first female Indigenous MP, Lidia Thorpe, said the Andrews Government should be ashamed.

"Every state has done something about reparations for the Stolen Generation except for the progressive Victorian Government," she said.

"How can we say it's progressive when it's ignoring our Stolen Generation?"

Ms Hutchins said a state-based scheme could be developed in treaty talks, but a national approach was the better option.

She said in meetings with Indigenous people, a treaty was identified as the priority issue.

"Within that, a Stolen Generations redress scheme may be part of that," Ms Hutchins said.

"I'm hoping it will actually happen before then on a national level and that we can work with the Federal Government to actually implement it across all states and territories."

Ms Hutchins said cross-border issues complicated state redress programs.

"We have thousands of Aboriginal Victorians who were actually born in other states and may have been taken from their families in other states, and that's why the importance of a national scheme has been something that we're committed to," she said.

Service says more resources needed for healing

At the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS) in Preston, in Melbourne's north, a support group for survivors of the Stolen Generations meets regularly.

The service has a dedicated Bringing Them Home worker, Daria Atkinson, who works with women dealing with trauma that stretches through generations.

But Erryn Nundle from VAHS said the single position is not enough.

Greens MP Lidia Thorpe addressed the rally outside Parliament. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

The divide of men's and women's business means it is culturally inappropriate for women to work with men and vice versa.

"Either the men's or women's business goes unanswered in a sense, because we only have the one worker," she said.

"A massive part of the Government's show of support would be to fund at least two positions."

Ms Atkinson herself was forced into an assimilation program as a child, where she was sent to stay with a white family.

"I got taken every Christmas holidays to live with white people — you had to forget about your home, you had to call them mum and dad," she said.

"But at least, I got to come home. And when I listen to these stories… I think thank God I got to come home."