The Fairbridge Society developed from the Child Emigration Society, established in 1909 by Kingsley Fairbridge. Its purpose was to send British child migrants to different parts of the Empire where they would learn farming at special farm schools. The Fairbridge Society ran Pinjarra in Western Australia from 1913, and sent children to farm schools in…
On 21 March 2013, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard apologised on behalf of the Australian Government to people affected by forced adoption or removal policies and practices. The national apology was delivered in the Great Hall of Parliament House, Canberra.
The Australian Red Cross was formed on the outbreak of the first World War in 1914 as a branch of the British Red Cross Society. The Australian Junior Red Cross, a subsidiary organisation to the Australian Red Cross, was formally established in New South Wales in 1918. The Junior Red Cross carried out a range…
On 13 February 2008, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd opened the Parliament of Australia by apologising to the Indigenous peoples of Australia. The Prime Minister said: We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians. We apologise especially for…
Affiliation is a word used to describe the process of identifying the father of a child born to a single mother. Single mothers were obliged to name the father of their child if they wished to access government payments. They were also forced to ask the father for maintenance or child support. If her request…
City Mission refers to the missions run by various Christian denominations in urban and suburban settings. Many of the city missions established in nineteenth-century Australia continue to operate community services organisations in the 2010s. The London City Mission was founded in 1835, with a mandate to ‘extend the knowledge of the Gospel among the inhabitants…
Uncontrollable is a term used in child welfare legislation and in child welfare files. It was generally used by authorities to describe a child believed to be undisciplined. Being uncontrollable could be a reason for a child to be deemed neglected and made a ward of the state in court. Parents and guardians could declare…
In Moral Danger (sometimes abbreviated as IMD) was a term in common use in government departments and welfare agencies in the twentieth century. It referred to one of the categories of a ‘child in need of care and protection’ under the various child welfare acts in Australian states and territories. Being ‘exposed to moral danger’…
Child guidance clinics were first established in Australia in the 1930s. Such clinics had been developed in the United States in the 1920s, for the diagnosis and treatment of mild behaviour and emotional problems in school-aged children (Wright, 2012). An important motive in the development of child guidance clinics was to counteract ‘juvenile delinquency’, but…
Apprenticeship was the practice of sending children in institutions or foster care into placements with employers once they were too old to attend school. It was not a trade apprenticeship as such, and generally meant children were sent to live in a private home to work as a farm labourer (for boys) or a domestic…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
