While you were busy usability testing the new site (thanks again to everyone who participated), we’ve been busy updating the records information on the site. There have been significant additions to the child and youth migrant pages, including records becoming newly available, and additional records becoming more easily available.
Northcote Farm School
For the first time, Records of the Northcote Trust Fund can be accessed by former residents and their families.
40 boxes of records relating to the management of the Trust in Australia, including information about individual children sent to the Northcote Farm School, Principals’ reports, staffing at the school, and correspondence from former Northcotians have been made available.
There are few full case files for the children at the Farm School. Individual files may include initial application information, reports on the child while at the Farm School, medical reports, correspondence with parents and holiday families, photographs, employment records, education certificates, reports of marriage and pregnancy, and correspondence with the children after they left the Farm School. There are mentions of children in the administrative records, which can provide context and build memories for those who attended the school and are missing individual files.
The Northcote Trust Fund was established in 1936 following a bequest in the will of Lady Alice Northcote to establish the Northcote Farm School for child migrants. The records are now available through the State Library of Victoria, and the Child Migrants Trust. Records about children are restricted to the individual and their family.
Molong Farm School
We were able to discover additional records about Molong Fairbridge Farm School. These School Records are a significant addition to the site, which we hope will assist many more previous residents to locate and access records about their time at Fairbridge.
The records vary substantially from those already included on the site, and build a more comprehensive view of life at Fairbridge. They include Admission Registers (1938-1974), Punishment Books (1948-1969), and Visitors’ Books (1938-1972).
The records are available at the State Archives of NSW, and most are open access.
Big Brother Farm, Liverpool
Records of Australia’s largest youth migration program, the Big Brother Movement, have been transferred to the State Library of NSW. The records were previously held by the Big Brother Movement, and you can still contact them for access.
These records include personal information for the “Little Brothers” sponsored under the Big Brother Movement scheme to come to Australia. In some cases, original records and photographs are included. Our updated entry describes the types of records held in the collection.
