Kids birth certificates for travel in/out of Australia ?

[habibihabibi]

Does anyone know if i need to take my children's birth certificates to Australia?
I have visas (UK passports) already

Our names are different and I'm not travelling with DH if that makes any difference.

Yes. Take them.

Get a letter from their father saying you have permission to travel to another country without his presence.

There is an expandable box on here which says kids can depart Aus with one parent and a passport.

I have copies of passports, birth certs, and our residency card on my phone, but never travel with the actual BC - and haven't yet been asked for it.... think I do similar routes to you - ME to UK.

Photos on phone, excellent idea ! Thanks Balloonflowers

Take the documents, not photos. I have travelled with the dc abroad dozens of times over the years and have been asked for bc's about 6 or 7 times - a small fraction of times - usually reentering the UK. Immigration will tell you that it is expected that you have the docs. I have a letter from their Dad, but only once has that been requested (not in UK or Aus). Glad I had it that once, though! Do NOT listen to people telling you that it is fine/ no one asks. Sometimes they do. Problems with immigration officials are not fun, and easily avoided in this case.

Definitely take the birth certificates. Have been asked several times re-entering the U.K. to provide them for our LOs.

So have I. And we have the same surname.

Make sure you prep your dc so they know what to say when they are casually asked where they are going and why their dad isn’t with them. The truth is fine obviously but ‘I don’t know’ isn’t.

The truth is fine obviously but ‘I don’t know’ isn’t.
^^
Once we were travelling and they were casually asked who I was.
Thinking it was a formal question my then five year old said she's Habibi. The immigration guy was quite taken aback and kept quizzing until the kids finally admitted I was their mother.

We live in the USA. I have the same surname as my D.C. but always take their BCs and a letter of permission from my DH (their Dad) if we’re flying without him to the U.K. and back.