Access to your birth, marriage and name change records

Birth, death, marriage, civil union and name change records are a public register — anyone can generally request copies of someone's information. You can see who's accessed your records since 2009 or block access to them if your safety is at risk.

Who can access your personal information

Birth, marriage, civil union, name change and death records are a public register — this means that anyone can generally legally request a certificate or printout of a record, even if it’s someone else’s. Some government agencies can also access your info as part of their regular work.

Some records cannot be accessed. These include:

  • pre-adoptive birth certificates
  • pre-sex reassignment birth certificates (if you’ve changed your gender on your birth certificate).

Find out who’s accessed your information

You can find out who’s requested your birth, marriage, civil union and name change records since 25 January 2009. This is free.

You’ll find out:

  • the name of the person who applied for your information
  • the date they applied
  • whether or not the application was granted.

You usually will not find out about any government agencies who’ve accessed your information as part of their work.

Request to search access register BDM 133 (PDF 161 KB)

Request to search access register BDM 133 — accessible alternative (TXT 8.4KB)

Hide your records

If you think that public access to your birth, marriage, civil union or name change records would put you or your family in danger, you can apply for a non-disclosure direction.

Get a non-disclosure direction

Who to contact for more help

If you need more help or have questions about the information or services on this page, contact the following agency.

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