Instead, as one of the half a million "Forgotten Australians", Ms Hawkins endured a childhood filled with mental and physical torment at St Michael's Girls Home in Kelso.

Yesterday, after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made an emotional apology to people who faced abuse and neglect in care homes, Ms Hawkins said she was overcome with a mixture of emotions.

"I am exhilarated just to have this event in my life acknowledged," she said. “Half of me wants to cry for what happed, while the other half is pleased to finally have this part of my life acknowledged.

"Previously when I told my story, people would roll their eyes and look at me like I was lying. Now they know this did happen here."

It was during the 1960s when the lives of Ms Hawkins and her younger sister, Jennifer, changed forever as they were moved to St Michael's Girls Home in Kelso.

"My older brother [who went to Orange], my younger sister and I were uprooted at a young age when one day we were told that we were going on a holiday," she said.

"From the moment we arrived [at St Michael's] we were constantly told we were bad and wrong and made to feel like we could not do anything right.

"I don't know how long we were there but I do remember two Christmases passing."

The years did not heal the wounds for Ms Hawkins, who now lives in Lithgow. Time and again she endured physical beatings and public displays of humiliation.

"I could not cope. I remember crying all the time and that saw me get the cane a lot," she said.

Then, just as suddenly as it began, Ms Hawkins and her sister's time at the girls home was over.

"One day a woman turned up and I was asked do you know who this person is?" she said.

"I said I did not know and that got me a slap across the head as the women said 'don't be silly, I'm your mother'.