Carrolup Native Settlement (1939 - 1951)

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Carrolup, near Katanning, was a government-run 'native settlement' which had been closed in 1922 and was and re-opened by the Department of Native Affairs in 1939. By 1944, there were 129 boys, girls and older children in government 'care' at Carrolup. Children at Carrolup were under the guardianship of the Commissioner for Native Affairs.

The Sunday Times reported in 1947 that Native Affairs Minister Ross McDonald said 'much interest was evidenced in the recent exhibition of drawings of children of Carrolup school for natives exhibited in Perth. All the pictures were purchased and realised &pound74, which will be expended in the interests of the children.'

In 1949, the school at Carrolup closed and school-age children were transferred to other missions according to their religious denominations.

In September 1949, former Carrolup schoolboys Barry Loo and Mervyn Smith became the first Aboriginal people to be employed in the Western Australian public service. They were engaged as clerical assistants at the Department of Native Affairs in Perth.

On 17 June 1951, Carrolup Native Settlement was closed and the Department of Native Affairs reported that the adults were 'dispersed' but that teenage boys were kept there to establish Marribank Farm Training School.