Dorelle Downs has endured more trauma than most.

In 1969, at the age of 19, she was gang raped and forced to give up the resulting baby for adoption — a baby boy she wanted to keep.

Dorelle Downs was 19 and working as a governess in western Queensland. ( Supplied )

"I got a job as a governess on a property in western Queensland," Ms Downs said.

"When I told mum I was pack raped, she just ignored it. She just did not want to know. She said 'you can't come home'."

Instead, Ms Downs went to St Mary's in Toowong, Brisbane, a home where unmarried women and girls would go to await the birth of their babies.

The old St Mary's facility symbolises a dark chapter in the church's history. ( Supplied )

"I had him about 2.30 in the morning, and they just took him straight away. I didn't see him," Ms Downs said.

"I wouldn't have known I had a son, except somebody came back and said 'you had a son, a long skinny streak like yourself, a crop of black hair and the same crooked little fingers'.

"So for a long time afterwards, I was looking for a baby with crooked fingers."

'You'll never find him'

Ms Downs signed a form to consent to his adoption, but did not want to.

"I was in the hospital for 10 days. I refused to sign the consent form," she said.

"I kept asking to see him. I was told 'don't bother looking for him you'll never find him'.

"And they told me the only way to get out of there was to sign the consent form, so I eventually signed."

While the exact number of forced adoptions is not known, it is thought thousands of Australian women and girls were forced or coerced into adopting their babies in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

Margaret Hamilton also stayed at St Mary's, where she too was coerced into giving up her son. ( Supplied/ABC News )

Redcliffe woman Margaret Hamilton was another resident of St Mary's in 1966.

"I won't forget, I won't forgive and I can't accept the fact they took my baby," she said.

"I was 19 back then. You were brought up to respect your parents and the church and the government knew what was best for you.

"So how could a little 19-year-old argue with that? That's what they told us, it was the best thing to do," Ms Hamilton said.

Churches, hospitals and governments around the country have since apologised for the practice, which former prime minister Julia Gillard described as "unethical, dishonest and in many cases illegal."

'The grief runs deep'

The memorial garden is at the site of the old home. ( ABC News: Jessica van Vonderen )

Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, Phillip Aspinall, apologised again this week at the blessing of a remembrance garden at the site of the old St Mary's home.

"Some really tragic experiences happened here," Archbishop Aspinall said.

"The Anglican Church has been making redress payments and they go some way towards helping some of the mothers.

"The grief runs so deep that nothing can really completely heal that.

"But I think reaching out a hand in friendship and support, and acknowledging what they went through and its deep impact, means a lot to these women."

The women have only recently become friends, but are bonded by a shared and shocking experience of the past. ( ABC News: Jessica van Vonderen )

Still these women keep fighting

A Senate inquiry in 2012 recommended that state and territory governments take "primary responsibility for financial reparation".

In Queensland, no redress scheme is in place, instead funding has been provided for counselling and support services.

In a statement, Child Safety Minister Di Farmer said victims of forced adoption were also "instrumental in shaping changes to the Adoption Act in 2016 and child protection legislation".

Ms Hamilton said it was not enough.

"The damage that they did to mothers and children and extended families is ongoing," Ms Hamilton said.

"They need to be held accountable for what they did to us."

The Church apologised to families in 2012 but the women are calling for a national redress scheme. ( ABC News: Jessica van Vonderen )

Ms Hamilton eventually found her son and had contact with him until his death in 2014.

Ms Downs also met her son for the first time in 1993.

"I met him at the airport, and in my mind I'm expecting the baby that I'd never seen, and out walked a man in front of me," she said.

"And all I wanted to do was cling onto him and not let him go. We've worked hard for the relationship we have today."