Barnardo's Australia is a collection of records held by Barnardo's Australia that relate to the orphanages, children's homes and Child Migration Schemes run and or participated in by Barnardo's Australia. The type of records in this collection include shipping lists and a card index of all child migrants, photographs, films and memorabilia. Case files relating to individual care leavers are not held in this collection, but can be found in a related collection held by the State Library of New South Wales.
Care leavers and their relatives should contact Barnardo's Australia to access these records. Care leavers may be required to provide proof of identity to protect the privacy of people who may be mentioned in these records. Relatives may also need to provide evidence of their relationship to a care leaver.
This collection of records relates to multiple homes, and the Child Migration Scheme that involved or where run by Barnardos Australia and Barnardos UK. Homes include:
Records in this collection may also relate to the Temporary Family Care (1978 - ), Boarding Out Family Grant Scheme (c. 1964 - ), and Find-A-Family (1975- ) programs.
Barnardos Australia has a Welfare Director and an Aftercare Co-ordinator who deal with enquiries from ex-clients of Barnardos. They are available to visit clients (where practical), to correspond with clients, to provide welfare and migration advice, counselling and referral to appropriate services where necessary. Barnardos Aftercare Services for ex-child migrants is operated through Barnardos' Head Office at Bay St. Barnardos recognises its responsibility to adults who have been past clients of the agency and provides ongoing support, information and counselling.
Sources used to compile this entry: Barnardos Australia: We Belive in Children, Barnardos Australia, c.2014, http://www.barnardos.org.au/; Thinee, Kristy and Bradford, Tracy, Connecting Kin: Guide to Records, A guide to help people separated from their families search for their records [completed in 1998], New South Wales Department of Community Services, Sydney, New South Wales, 1998, https://clan.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/connectkin_guide.pdf.
Prepared by: Melissa Downing
Created: 10 August 2011, Last modified: 19 September 2014