FORTY years ago Charmaine Webster was born. She doesn’t know which hospital, or even whether she was born in Australia, because her birth went unregistered.

In fact, according to the Australian Government Ms Webster doesn’t officially exist. Without a birth certificate she can’t get a driver’s licence or a full-time job.

Ms Webster has never set foot outside Australia. She’s trapped in her own country because she can’t prove her identity to obtain a passport.

For the last 20 years Ms Webster has fought with government agencies to prove her identity. But each time, she’s been handed from one case manager to another, with no results.

Charmaine Webster shared her story with news.com.au.

As far as she can remember, Ms Webster has lived all her life in Australia, most of it in Queensland. She currently lives with her husband and two teenage children in Ipswich.

Ms Webster was born to Rexford and Jennifer Black on February 19, 1974. Growing up, birthdays weren’t celebrated in the Black family. Ms Webster is the youngest of Ms Black’s children, with four older siblings, all whose births were registered.

But everything else about Ms Webster’s birth remains a mystery. Her sister Ann-Marie only has memories of Ms Webster from when she was three and older.

In her early adult life, Ms Webster lost contact with what she called her “abusive” parents, and since then hasn’t been able to obtain any information from them regarding her birth.

At first, she didn’t realise the problems an unregistered birth carried with it. Ms Webster was able to get work in her late teens without too much trouble by registering for a Tax File Number at the post office.

But in the last decade laws have changed, and employers are now fined for hiring workers who cannot prove their Australian citizenship and could be illegal immigrants. Because Ms Webster can’t provide evidence in the form of a passport or birth certificate, she can’t get a job.

Ms Webster began approaching government agencies for assistance when she wanted to get married, in 2000. She searched the Births, Deaths and Marriages registers in each state, with no luck. Each state told her to try another state office.

Eventually she was able to get married through the help of an old friend and Justice of the Peace, who signed documents required for marriage registration.

Years passed, with little progress. Ms Webster would at times renew her search in earnest, and other times grow weary with the continual referrals.

“You keep believing in the next lead, like you’re going to get somewhere,” she told news.com.au. “You break, you crumble, you spiral into terrible depression.”

In 2007 Ms Webster registered to study a Bachelor of Human Services part-time at Griffith University, hoping to examine Australian legislation and better understand the system that couldn’t grant her an identity. She graduated in 2011, still no closer to achieving her goal.

A decade later, with the internet her greatest aid, Ms Webster started her search again, this time keeping records of every interaction she had with government agencies.

The federal Department of Immigration and Citizenship in Brisbane informed her that they couldn’t take her application without proof of Australian birth or a baptism record.

In 2012 Ms Webster began a Freedom of Information search with Centrelink, believing them to possess information about her birth. After more than a year of battling with her case workers, a heavily redacted file was released to her with evidence of her date of birth, February 19, 1974.

Centrelink records also showed that Ms Webster appeared on her mother’s Medicare records in 1984, when she was 10 years old. Another Freedom of Information request revealed a school enrolment notice from Glenelg primary school dated 1985. But none of these documents could help Ms Webster get a passport or driver’s licence.

Her search continued, proving largely fruitless as she was bounced from case worker to case worker.

In July 2012, Queensland’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Jarrod Bleijie, recommended that Ms Webster obtain an Order of the Court to have her birth registered. But when she followed that up with Queensland Births, Deaths and Marriages, they informed her that wasn’t possible without documented evidence of her place of birth.

They recommended she contact the BDM in each state to confirm whether she was born there, a process which Ms Webster now must go through again in order to get the right paperwork.

“They’re just sending me in circles,” she said. “And when you don’t exist, you live in poverty.”

Justine Smith, spokeswoman and caseworker at Queensland Birth, Deaths and Marriages — the agency now handling her case — says unregistered births are rare. “We’re quite aware of the problems she’s going through and have told her we’re not giving up,” Ms Smith told news.com.au.

But Ms Webster is exhausted with the battle she’s been fighting for 20 years.

“I’ve watched my children get driver’s licences and jobs, and I can’t do it. You get another lead, you keep trying to go higher, stop dealing with the people at the counter or the call centre. You keep making noise,” she said.

“It’s like a terrible hot potato. I just want to work and support my family. It’s not fair on my husband and children. This is enough.”

Do you have information to help Charmaine Webster with her search for identity? Comment below or join the conversation on Twitter @newscomauHQ