Child migration to Western Australia

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Mention was made in a recent discussion of children being sent by ship to Australia soon after World War II. Between 1947 and 1953 over 3,200 children arrived under various schemes. One hundred came from Malta while the rest were from the United Kingdom. Most of the children went to homes run by voluntary and religious institutions. However, overall, between the 1920s to 1960s, some 150,000 children were sent to Australia and Canada. A popular immigration slogan of the time was ‘the child, the best immigrant’. Some of the advantages were that they assimilated easily and were more adaptable. They also had a long working life ahead of them and could be housed in dormitory accommodation. While the British philanthropists might have thought they were doing the children a service, many of the small immigrants found themselves being used as virtual slave labour. Abuse of all kinds was also rife. Many had a miserable life. Not all were orphans. At the time, to have a child out of wedlock was a grave social stigma and the pressure to put the child up for adoption was huge. In some large families, parents thought their child/children would have the chance of a better life if given up. Often, children were often told their parents had died, the thinking being that this would have them settle down better. Our friend’s mother and uncle were sent out from England to ease the pressure of raising a large family. They were very accepting of the circumstances and didn’t hold any resentment against their parents for having been given up. They were lucky in some respects as they had a relatively stable life and were never abused. The photo is of a statue on Fremantle wharf where those destined for settlement in Western Australia would have disembarked. I can’t imagine the emotions that these children would have felt, landing in a strange country and many, many miles from all they were familiar with.