Aboriginal children are being taken away from their parents at a higher rate than during the stolen generation.
In 1969 a thousand indigenous children across New South Wales were in the care of foster parents, institutions and missions - making up part of the stolen generation.
Today, 4,000 aboriginal children are in state care, an increase of 37 percent in the last year alone.
Half of the children are just streets away, in the care of their grandparents.
Child advocates have described the figures as very worrying, and would like to see the numbers of children leaving their parents decrease.
The statistics were "very, very worrying", chairwoman of the Aboriginal Child, Family and Community Care State Secretariat, Amanda Bridge, said.
"It's more than were taken in the Stolen Generation," she said.
"It's alarming, and as a practice it's wildly different to what we'd like to see, which is the numbers coming down."