First Peoples support and outreach

Learn how we support First Peoples to access our services, and how our First Peoples Outreach (Marguk-bulok koolin-ik) Team can partner with community organisations.

We respectfully acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, who are the Traditional Owners of the land our office is located on. We pay our respects to Elders past and present for all Victorian Traditional Owners as we extend our acknowledgment to all the lands where our services reach and support.

We recognise the diversity of First Peoples living in Victoria including other First Peoples from around Australia.

Support for families and individuals

Access our online services

You can learn about:

Support with fees (our fee waiver policy)

Some certificates and services cost money, including:

  • legal certificates (birth, death, marriage, change of name and single status)
  • changing a name
  • registering a relationship.

You can learn more about our fees.

In some circumstances, you can ask the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages not to charge the fee.

This is called a fee waiver.

The Registrar may decide to waive fees for people who are experiencing:

  • financial hardship
  • natural disasters
  • vulnerability, such as:
    • people experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness
    • people experiencing or directly impacted by family violence.

To be eligible for a fee waiver, you will need to provide evidence of your circumstances.

You can learn more about how we can help with fees including what evidence you need to provide.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Support with my identity documents

Your privacy is important to us. That is why we ask you to prove your identity when you apply for our services.

Don’t have a driver licence or passport? Don’t worry. We can help you prove your identity with the documents you do have.

To get started, you can complete this questionnaire before you apply. It will tell you documents you need, and what to do next.

Need help? Contact us

Not sure if you have the right information, or you need help accessing our services?

Call us on 132 842 to speak with a customer service representative.

Support for communities and organisations

First Peoples Outreach (Marguk-bulok koolin-ik) Team

Our First Peoples Outreach (Marguk-bulok koolin-ik) Team works to support the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander community to understand and access our services.

We work alongside Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to help navigate our online services and advise how they can support their clients to access our services.

Contact the First Peoples Outreach (Marguk-bulok koolin-ik) Team

Ask a question or request a visit from the Department of Government Services (DGS) First Peoples Outreach (Marguk-bulok koolin-ik) Team.

The First Peoples Outreach (Marguk-bulok koolin-ik) Team visits communities to support access to BDM services.

Please fill in this form to:

  • Request a visit
  • Get resources, or
  • Ask a question.

A member of the team will get in touch with you.

Your details

We will only use your name, email address and phone number to respond to your enquiry.

The Department of Government Services (DGS) collects your personal information on behalf of Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria and discloses that information to Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria for the purpose of responding to your enquiry. If you choose not to provide all or part of the information required, we may not be able to contact you or action your request.

If you have any questions about how your personal information will be handled or would like to gain access to your personal information, you can contact Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria on 132 842 (within Australia) or +61 3 9613 5111 (overseas callers).

We're using the services of Drupal 9 to administer this form. The information that you provide is stored by the Department of Government Services (DGS) on the Microsoft Azure infrastructure in Sydney, Australia.

For more information on our handling of any personal information, please refer to our privacy page.

Language use

On this website we use these terms:

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander’ and ‘First Peoples’. Refers to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people across Australia.
  • Koorie’, ‘Koori’ or ‘Gurri’. Refers to First Peoples of south-eastern Australia.
  • Family’ has many different meanings. Use of the words ‘family’ and ‘families’ is all-encompassing. It acknowledges that a variety of relationships and structures can make up a family unit. These include family-like or care relationships and extended kinship structures.
  • Boorai’, meaning ‘baby’ or ‘child’, is used in many Aboriginal language groups.
  • Mob’. Refers to a group of Aboriginal people associated with a particular place or Country. It is used to connect and identify Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people and where they are from. ‘Mob’ can represent a family group, clan group or wider Aboriginal community group.

First Peoples Outreach (Marguk-bulok koolin-ik) Team name

Aunty Fay Stewart-Muir is a highly respected Boonwurrung Elder. She has served the Victorian community for over 40 years. Aunty Fay kindly shared her Boonwurrung language by naming our First Peoples Outreach (Marguk-bulok koolin-ik) Team.

The meaning of 'Marguk-bulok koolin-ik' reflects family connections, care, culture and community. These are important parts of the team's work to support mob. We are proud for the team to be called Marguk-bulok koolin-ik.

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