Australia is well served with 3 public Cord Blood Banks (CBB), one each in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, collecting from 11 different maternity hospitals. These banks have been in operation for the last 20 years and are licensed by the Australian Regulatory agency, the TGA as well as being internationally accredited by a body setting international Standards for cord blood banking and release, called FACT (the Foundation for Accreditation of Cellular Therapies). In addition to these banks, a further public bank is in development in Perth. Read more about Public Cord Blood Banking here.

There is no charge for the collection or storage of CB in the Public Banks but there are strict eligibility criteria and collection can only occur in one of the licensed obstetric units associated with the Banks, and if baby’s delivery occurs during the times that the collection staff are on duty.

This CB is not stored specifically for use by a member of your family. Cord bloods from Public Banks are made available for patients with suitable matching, in Australia and internationally, who need a marrow transplant but do not have a suitably matched family or adult unrelated donor. To date over a thousand cord blood units have been released to patients in need, from the Auscord Banks.

For further information about altruistic cord blood donation and the hospitals at which CB collection is possible, the Banks may be contacted as follows:

BMDI CBB located at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne: 039345 5834
Brisbane CBB at the Mater Hospital: 0731631614
Sydney CBB at the Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick: 0293820371

In addition to the public banks there is a private cord blood banks in Australia: CellCare. They arrange collection of an infant’s CB at the obstetric hospital, process and store the CB for potential use by the infant donor, or another close family member, at some time in the future. There are costs associated with private CB collection and private banking. Contact details information about the services provided and the schedule of charges, may be found on the CellCare’s website.