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Orphans of The Empire: The Shocking Story of Child Migration to Australia
This is a book about the white stolen children - a lost tribe - who were sent to Australia with dreams of a better life, but who, in reality, often suffered great cruelty and abuse. 'This book draws back the curtain on a part of Australian and British history that has been crying out for recognition. All Australians shoud read it' Sir Ronald Wilson'This story is remarkable. Even more remarkable is the fact that, until now, it was largely untold. This is an important story, an important part of Australia's story and long overdue' David Hill'Orphans of the Empire is unusually affecting, hard to put down..' Geraldine DoogueAn account of the white 'stolen children', who were supposedly orphans arriving in Australia from many countries to a better future, but who in reality simply came from poor families and arrived to uncertain futures and often extremely abusive environments in various institutions. More than 80,000 people were directly involved in this experience as 'orphans', while thousands more have been affected by the experience as children and relatives of the orphans, and as Australian-born children who were also living in the institutions described in this book. Although there were occasional great acts of kindness towards these children there was also systematic abuse of all kinds. Orphans of the Empire is based on hundreds of hours of taped interviews with men and women who came to Australia as child migrants. It is the complete and shocking story that was first made known through 4 Corners and 60 Minutes stories and the BBC's very popular Leaving Of Liverpool series.
1000 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 24, 2014
Well, well. What do you know? Good ole' England has been transporting people since the 1600s and it didn't stop until around 1960! The first "transportees" were members of the royal family and other nobility who were unwanted, troublemakers, etc. Next, of course, came the transportations to America/Canada of debtors, criminals, indentured servants and other unwanteds. The most famous of course is the settlement of Australia, originally a penal colony.
Well, in Australia it didn't stop. Nor in Canada, Rhodesia, and New Zealand. Suddenly there were "orphans" who needed to be taken out of the orphanages in Britain and sent elsewhere. Elsewhere meant mainly Australia.
Not all, in fact most, of these children were actual orphans. Many had been put on social services because they were illegitimate, their usually single mother couldn't afford the children she had (don't think welfare mothers - realize some of this happened during the era of WWI when many women with children were widowed). Anyway, the best notions of child welfare at the time believed that children were best away from their parents in bad situations.
However, Australia, Canada, and Rhodesia needed more "white" settlers and there were too many children for the social services in England to handle. Therefore, children were asked if they'd like to move to Australia where they could ride kangaroos like horses(!) Many volunteered without having any notion of what they were getting into. Some were as young as 5.
In Australia, they were put in homes run by various religious and social groups. I won't go into all the groups, the logistics of getting the orphans etc. But most of the children, once they got there, were told their family was dead and letters to/from the children were kept rather than sent on.
The worst part is that a good many of the children were abused, mentally, physically and sexually. Because they were institutionalized from an early age, they had trouble blending into life outside their school. Many were not educated beyond about 10 years old. Some schools required the students to do all the work of building. Some assigned students as workers on farms or (for the girls) as menials in a household as a way of "training" them for the future.
The stories are heart-rending and Gill has done a good job of recounting them. In the first half of the book, he give a history of "child migration" to Australia and tells the stories of many of them and the organizations that took them in. In the rest of the book, he discusses the allegations of abuse and how they were handled (up until 1998).
He is very evenhanded. He tends to support the "Old Boys" and "Old Girls" (as former residents were called), but he always lets the other side have its say (if it will - many of the church representatives refused to speak with him).
Of course, child abuse is not an isolated thing. One country does not own the problem. But it was fascinating to me to learn that Britain was still "transporting" people into the late twentieth century.
Although the book is long (800 pages), Gill does a very evenhanded job in his journalism. And the book is good reading. It doesn't really seem to be as long as it is, except a little towards the end.
For another look at Australia's history as a "dumping" ground for British unwanteds, read this.
Well, in Australia it didn't stop. Nor in Canada, Rhodesia, and New Zealand. Suddenly there were "orphans" who needed to be taken out of the orphanages in Britain and sent elsewhere. Elsewhere meant mainly Australia.
Not all, in fact most, of these children were actual orphans. Many had been put on social services because they were illegitimate, their usually single mother couldn't afford the children she had (don't think welfare mothers - realize some of this happened during the era of WWI when many women with children were widowed). Anyway, the best notions of child welfare at the time believed that children were best away from their parents in bad situations.
However, Australia, Canada, and Rhodesia needed more "white" settlers and there were too many children for the social services in England to handle. Therefore, children were asked if they'd like to move to Australia where they could ride kangaroos like horses(!) Many volunteered without having any notion of what they were getting into. Some were as young as 5.
In Australia, they were put in homes run by various religious and social groups. I won't go into all the groups, the logistics of getting the orphans etc. But most of the children, once they got there, were told their family was dead and letters to/from the children were kept rather than sent on.
The worst part is that a good many of the children were abused, mentally, physically and sexually. Because they were institutionalized from an early age, they had trouble blending into life outside their school. Many were not educated beyond about 10 years old. Some schools required the students to do all the work of building. Some assigned students as workers on farms or (for the girls) as menials in a household as a way of "training" them for the future.
The stories are heart-rending and Gill has done a good job of recounting them. In the first half of the book, he give a history of "child migration" to Australia and tells the stories of many of them and the organizations that took them in. In the rest of the book, he discusses the allegations of abuse and how they were handled (up until 1998).
He is very evenhanded. He tends to support the "Old Boys" and "Old Girls" (as former residents were called), but he always lets the other side have its say (if it will - many of the church representatives refused to speak with him).
Of course, child abuse is not an isolated thing. One country does not own the problem. But it was fascinating to me to learn that Britain was still "transporting" people into the late twentieth century.
Although the book is long (800 pages), Gill does a very evenhanded job in his journalism. And the book is good reading. It doesn't really seem to be as long as it is, except a little towards the end.
For another look at Australia's history as a "dumping" ground for British unwanteds, read this.
April 15, 2015
I filed this book on the Australian Fiction shelf, but this is NOT fiction. Fascinating account of when Britain sent its lost children to Australia and what happened to those children there. Moving, sad, disturbing....
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews