The claims, which will be investigated by a committee of the state parliament in New South Wales. Up to 80,000 women could be involved in the adoptions.

Minister for Community Services Fay Lo Po announced the inquiry after listening to what she described as harrowing and intensely moving accounts from women who say their babies were virtually stolen.

The claims go back to the 1950s and 60s - a time when Australian society looked with disdain at single women who became pregnant.

Some women say the stigma attached to becoming a single mother led to the creation of illegal adoption agencies.

Some mothers never saw their babies and were allegedly told their child had died at birth.





...were forced to give up their newborn babies

The parliamentary committee will hear evidence from hundreds of women.

Faye Lo Po said the stories told by women were "harrowing and touching".

"We need to let them tell the world of this practice," Ms Lo Po said. "But more importantly, I want their children to hear it because, until they understand it, they will feel abandoned.

"This was a very much under-the-cover practice. We are talking about an indefinite number. I have heard hundreds, thousands, I don't know how many," she said.

Chris Cobb, head of Origins, an organisation set up by the women, said: "We were not treated like other mothers, we were treated as less than human.

"We were forbidden any contact with our babies. This is not just an adoption issue, this is an issue about having a child stolen at birth."