Folio 04 of 05An application
Applying to the Central Register
Donor-conceived people, their parents, donors, and the descendants of donor-conceived people may each apply to the Central Register for information, through the Donor Conception Registrar at Victoria’s Department of Health. An application comes with a Statement of Reasons and, in most cases, a fee, which the department gave as $89.46 for the 2026/2027 financial year when its page was read on 9 October 2026.
General information about Victorian law, not legal or medical advice. Applications are made to the Department of Health; its Central Register page is the official place to check the process and the current fee. The law is the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008.
The steps
An application, from start to answer
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Check that you may apply
The department’s statement-of-reasons page says Victorian law lets donor-conceived people, their parents, donors, and descendants of donor-conceived people apply for information through the Registrar. In the Act, applications are made under s 56. A donor-conceived child can apply too ; the conditions for releasing identifying information to a child are in The right to know your donor.
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Decide what you are asking for
There are three kinds of request. You can ask for a copy of your own record, which the department says covers only you and none of your donors or other connections. You can ask for non-identifying information, meaning general details that reveal no one’s identity. Or you can ask for identifying information, such as a full name, date of birth or unique donor code, which can be sought only about people directly connected to you through donor conception, never about donor siblings who share your donor. The Act’s baseline is s 57(1): whatever is asked for must be given, apart from identifying information about someone else.
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Write the Statement of Reasons
Every application includes a Statement of Reasons, explaining why you are seeking information or contact and what you hope will come of it. The department describes the form as setting out why you applied and what you would like to happen, both soon and in the longer term. It is a form prescribed by the 2024 amendments to the Regulations. Write it knowing who will read it: the department says the completed form is sent to the person you are asking about. Its page on writing the statement explains more.
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Read the explanatory material
The Registrar is responsible for providing material that explains the process, what a disclosure can lead to, and the support that is available. The department’s December 2024 guide says providing prescribed explanatory material became a new requirement for the Registrar.
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Pay the fee, or check whether it is waived
A fee is generally charged; for 2026/2027 the department’s page gave the prescribed fee as $89.46. Regulation 19 of the 2019 Regulations sets the fee in fee units rather than dollars. The table below sets out when no fee is payable.
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Wait for notice and any contact preferences
The department says the Registrar must notify the person your request is about, and may ask them to state contact preferences, which are legally binding. It also says preferences last five years and that you must agree to follow them; where they exist, you sign an undertaking, and penalties apply for a breach. For a donor from before 1998 (section 63G), and for a person born from donor treatment (section 63O), the Act requires the undertaking before that person’s identifying information is released, and it covers a preference lodged later. How the pre-1998 case works is in Donors from before 1998.
Fees
When no fee is payable
Two sources describe this, in slightly different terms, and both are set out in full here.
| Case | The Regulations, r 19(2): fee is nil if | The department: Registrar may waive when |
|---|---|---|
| Hardship | the applicant is currently experiencing financial hardship | the applicant is experiencing financial hardship |
| Your earlier application | the applicant has already applied for Central Register information under s 56(1) or s 60A(1) and paid the fee for that application | the same person has made an application before |
| A donor sibling’s application | a donor sibling of the applicant has already applied under s 56(1) or s 60A(1) and paid the fee | a donor sibling has made an earlier application |
Timing
How long it may take
The department’s pages, read on 9 October 2026, describe a delay in processing Central Register applications, with the Registrar expected to begin releasing information in stages from June 2026. Release of non-identifying information has started, with donor-conceived people’s applications given priority, and the department expects identifying information to begin to be released in late 2026.
The department says it is changing how it manages applications and shares register information, and bringing in the new processes in stages. Anyone who has already applied does not need to start again: the department says those applications were recorded and remain active.
Support
Counselling along the way
The department’s December 2024 guide said the amended Act would no longer require counselling to be provided or offered before register information is released, while keeping the rule that a counsellor confirms a child applicant’s maturity. The Act as it stands bears that out for children: s 59(b) lists counselling by a Part 6 counsellor and a statement from that counsellor on the child’s maturity. Counselling also remains on offer more widely: the department says it is free and confidential for everyone eligible to use the Central Register or the Voluntary Register.
Who keeps the register and answers the application is the subject of The Donor Conception Registrar.