The Minimbah Project is back in the region with their Birth Certificate Sign Up Days in five towns over five days, from Goodooga to Gilgandra.

Although all births are required by law to be registered in the first 60 days and birth certificates are needed to access many essential services - think child care and school enrolment, driver's license, joining sporting clubs, opening bank accounts - it is estimated that more than half a million Australians do not own birth certificates.

About one third of the 6,000 Aboriginal children born in Australia each year do not get their birth certificates so they, like many of their parents, are excluded from accessing a raft of life opportunities.

First generation Australians, such as asylum seekers, also struggle to obtain these primary forms of identity.

According to Will Winters, Minimbah Co-ordinator, these 'proof of life' documents "provide the scaffolding for Australian citizenship, personal identity and ancestral belonging" and are "the first steps toward full participation, employment, rights and identity."

The Minimbah Project began in 2011 when university students were delivering a financial literacy program with disadvantaged primary school children.

While encouraging children to open bank accounts it was discovered that an astounding majority of them (95%) at the school did not have access to birth certificates and many did not have their births registered.

Further investigation revealed that their parents also did not have proof of birth documents.

Along with volunteers from Rotary, The Minimbah Project have raised funds from business, government and the community to provide children in our community with birth certificates.

Currently in NSW a birth certificate costs $87 but at these events they will be supplied without charge, providing the child's parent or guardian can produce sufficient proof of identity on the day.

While the primary focus is with Aboriginal people, the Minimbah Project will help anyone who needs a birth certificate.

During this visit the Sign Up Days will involve grass-roots organisations like MacKillop Family Services, Clontarf, Rotary, Lions, schools, JPs and sporting clubs.

"We want every Australian to have a birth certificate – a proof of life, and to make our nation a fairer, more inclusive place," Mr Winter said.

"We aim to provide opportunities to obtain a legal and personal identity; to be full citizens; to contribute to society and get the most out of life."

The Minimbah Project and their supporters are also campaigning for governments to make birth certificates free and automatic at birth.

The team were in Lightning Ridge on Monday, are in Goodooga today (Tuesday 7 June), Walgett tomorrow (Wednesday 8 June), Coonamble Thursday 10 June

before they move on to Gilgandra on Friday.