Appendix 4

Figures on child migration during the twentieth century

Table 4.1: Numbers of child migrants sent to Australia

Source	Time Period	Numbers	Reference
Mr Alan Gill	1912-late 1960s	30 000	Gill, Orphans of the Empire, p.86
National Council of Voluntary Child Care Organisations (NCVCCO)	1920 - late 1960s	7 446	Submission No.55 (NCVCCO), p.5
Child Migrants Trust	1920 - late 1960s	7 000 + (based on NCVCCO data)	Submission No.132 (CMT), p.7
Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs	1912 - 1961	6 500 (3 500 pre-war; 3 000 post-war)	Submission No.42 (DIMA), pp.15,17
Professor Sherington	1912 - late 1960s	6 000 (approx half pre-war; half post-war)	Submission No.119 (Professor Sherington), p.1
UK Health Committee	1947-1967	7 000 - 10 000	UK Health Committee Report, para.13
Dr Coldrey	1947-late 1960s	3 000-3 500	Submission No.15 (Dr Coldrey), p.38
Dr Constantine	1947-1965	3 170	Submission No.88, Additional Information, 25.3.01, (Dr Constantine), p.2

Table 4.2: Numbers of child migrants: data by receiving agencies

Source	Time Period	Numbers	Reference
Barnardos	1921 - 1965	2 784 (2 340 pre-war; 444 post-war)	Committee Hansard, 22.3.01, p.467 (Barnardos Australia)
	1921-1967	3 000	Gill, Orphans of the Empire, p.116
	1929-1939	1 600	Submission No.119, Additional Information, 26.6.01 (Professor Sherington)
	1947-1965	457	Submission No.88, Additional Information, 25.3.01, p.2 (Dr Constantine)
Fairbridge	1912 - 1960	2 301 (1 471 pre-war; 830 post-war)	Sherington & Jeffery, Fairbridge, pp.264-66
	1912-1939	1 500	Submission No. 119, Additional Information, 26.6.01 (Professor Sherington)
	1947-1953	516	Sherington & Jeffery, p.231
	1947-1965	1 109	Submission No.88, Additional Information, 25.3.01, (Dr Constantine), p.2
Catholic religious orders	1938 - 1965	1 355 (110 pre-war; 1 245 post-war)	Submission No.54 (JLG), p.5; Hansard (JLG), p.482
	1938 - 1963	1 149*	Submission No.51 (CCWC), p.5
	1947-53	843*	Sherington & Jeffery, p.231

	1947-1965	946*	Submission No.88, Additional Information, 25.3.01 (Dr Constantine), p.2
Church of England	1947-1965	408	Submission No.88, Additional Information, 25.3.01, (Dr Constantine), p.2
Church of England (Swan Homes, WA)	1947-1960	350	Submission No.56 (Swanleigh), p.2
Salvation Army	1950-1960	91	Submission No.88, Additional Information, 25.3.01, (Dr Constantine), p.2
	1950s	less than 100 ‘youth migrants’	Good British Stock, Ch 3, Part 16
NCH	1937-1952	129	Submission No.98 (NCH), p.1
	1950-1952	92	Submission No.98 (NCH), p.1
Methodist Church	1950- 1954	91	Good British Stock, Ch 3, Part 17
	1950-1952	76	Submission No.88, Additional Information, 25.3.01, (Dr Constantine), p.2
Presbyterian Church	1950-1960	83	Submission No.88, Additional Information, 25.3.01, (Dr Constantine), p.2
	1950-1960	79	Good British Stock, Ch 3, Part 18

*Excludes Maltese child migrants

Table 4.3: Child and youth migration statistics: 1947-June 1961

Age on Arrival	1947	1948	1949	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959	1960	1961	Total
2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
3	0	0	3	3	0	2	2	0	0	1	0	1	1	2	0	15
4	2	0	5	3	1	4	5	4	5	2	3	3	1	4	2	44
5	18	2	12	15	12	11	17	15	13	6	1	5	4	4	1	136
6	34	13	17	24	12	17	25	20	12	4	7	6	3	2	2	198
7	36	10	22	23	20	32	22	22	15	5	5	6	3	6	3	230
8	49	13	21	29	19	31	36	30	17	7	3	7	7	6	3	278
9	43	14	23	33	16	41	46	31	23	15	11	12	4	4	0	316
10	48	9	20	45	19	38	59	39	28	13	8	8	13	10	3	360
11	60	5	21	39	21	21	39	23	27	13	8	9	9	6	2	303
12	51	14	14	41	25	19	50	20	22	7	5	15	13	11	1	308
13	42	7	18	46	19	8	35	21	20	16	7	6	16	6	2	269
14	24	2	13	34	8	7	15	10	20	15	1	13	17	4	4	187
15	4	4	14	32	27	25	9	19	13	16	13	5	22	20	10	233
Sub-Total	411	93	203	367	199	256	360	254	215	120	72	97	113	85	33	2878
16	29	42	65	86	93	87	49	55	70	49	77	50	56	51	34	893
17	14	65	46	144	235	178	120	98	110	105	123	80	131	109	54	1612
18	0	0	1	6	10	38	43	20	46	31	43	49	103	130	61	581
19	0	0	0	6	10	12	2	1	0	0	2	4	43	32	11	123
20	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	3
Sub-Total	43	107	112	242	348	315	214	174	226	185	245	184	333	322	162	3212
Total	444	200	315	609	547	571	574	428	441	305	317	281	446	407	195	6090

Source: Submission No.42, p.45 (DIMA).

Table 4.4: Subsidised child migrants sent to Australia from the UK by voluntary societies: 1947-65

	1947	1948	1949	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	Total
Catholic Church	334	28	18	84	14	134	184	82	34	15	1	2		4	5	2	2	1	2	946
Church of England	16	12	39	32	12	53	36	47	35	37	24	29	13	20	1	1			1	408
Barnardos	38	22	24	50	36	44	18	22	46	31	10		30	8	12	11	31	8	16	457
Fairbridge	51	65	39	109	73	57	54	52	63	24	36	42	56	24	46	60	38	95	47	997
NCH				65	8	1														76
Northcote		38	9	13	14	4	5	6	12	3	5	3								112
Church of Scotland				28	3	7	1	22	4	2	1	2		11						83
Salvation Army				7	1	23	7	12	5	12	5	12	4	1						91
Total	411	165	129	388	161	323	305	243	199	124	82	90	103	68	64	74	71	104	66	3170

Source: Submission No.88, Additional Information, 25.3.01 (Dr S Constantine).

STATISTICS ON CATHOLIC CHILD MIGRANTS FROM THE UK AND MALTA

Table 4.5: Child migrants by country of origin

Country of Origin	Male	Female	Total
From U.K.	725	320	1,045
From Malta	259	51	310
Total	984	371	1,355

Table 4.6: Child migrants by State of destination

State of Destination	Male	Female	Total
WA	903	193	1,096
SA	-	53	53
QLD	11	37	48
NSW	31	35	66
TAS	39	-	39
VIC	-	53	53
Total	984	371	1,355

Figure 4.1: Numbers of child migrants by year of arrival and country of origin

* Note: Three (3) children arrived with the Fairbridge Scheme in 1935 and were transferred to Tardun in 1942.

Table 4.7: Child migrants by diocese and initial destination

Diocese	Initial Destination	No. of Child Migrants
Perth	Castledare (Christian Brothers)	212
	Clontarf (Christian Brothers)	188
	St. Joseph’s Subiaco (Sisters of Mercy - Perth)	103
	St. Vincent’s Subiaco (Sisters of Mercy - Perth)	28
	Transfers from Fairbridge to Clontarf	3
	Bindoon (Christian Brothers)	245
Geraldton	Nazareth House Bluff Point (Poor Sisters of Nazareth)	94
	Tardun (Christian Brothers)	220
	Transfers from Fairbridge to Tardun	3
Hobart	Glenorchy (Salesians of Don Bosco)	39
Adelaide	Goodwood (Sisters of Mercy - Adelaide)	53
Melbourne	Nazareth House/ East Camberwell (Poor Sisters of Nazareth)	53
Sydney	Lane Cove (Sisters of St Joseph)	7
	Ryde (Sisters of Mercy - Parramatta)	6
Maitland	Murray Dwyer (Diocesan home staffed by Daughters of Charity)	31
Wagga	Thurgoona (Sisters of Mercy - Goulburn)	22
Rockhampton	Neerkol (Sisters of Mercy - Rockhampton)	48
Total		1,355

Source: Submission No. 54, pp.5-6 (JLG).

Figure 4.2: Age at emigration: British and Maltese child migrants sent to Catholic institutions in Australia 1938 - 1965

Source: Submission No.47, Additional Information, 16.2.01 (WA Christian Brothers Province Archivist).

STATISTICS ON MALTESE CHILD MIGRANTS

Table 4.8: Age distribution of Maltese child migrants

Age	Male	Female	Total
4	4	1	5
5	3	5	8
6	6	5	11
7	9	3	12
8	19	6	25
9	23	10	33
10	30	6	36
11	49	3	52
12	42	3	45
13	36	2	38
14	24	5	29
15	7	2	9
16	7	0	7
Total	259	51	310

State of Destination

WA 303

SA 7

At a minimum 139 (45%) Maltese former child migrants left the institutions in Australia to go to their families who had become resident in Australia (often in another State), while another 15 (5%) returned to Malta, that is, 50% of Maltese former child migrants were reunited with families.

Source: Submission No.45, Additional Information, 4.5.01, p.4 (C-BERS).

CATHOLIC CHILD WELFARE COUNCIL (UK) - STATISTICS ON CATHOLIC CHILD MIGRANTS FROM THE UK

Age

The average age of children sent to Australia was approximately 9.4 years, the youngest being 2 years and the oldest entrant on the original register was a 23 year old who was accompanying her younger sister. The majority of children sent were between the ages of 5 - 13 years, the Australian Catholic Church preferring younger children to be sent. The highest single percentage of children sent were 8 year olds with about half of all children aged between 7 - 10 years of age. There are 92 children for whom the date of birth/age is not given in records.

Table 4.9: Ages of children and numbers sent to Australia

Age	Number sent to Australia
2 years	1
3 years	3
4 years	11
5 years	55
6 years	84
7 years	100
8 years	163
9 years	143
10 years	154
11 years	114
12 years	85
13 years	62
14 years	40
15 years	20
16 years	9
17 years	8
18 years	4
23 years	1
Unknown	92
TOTAL	1149

Age of former child migrants as at December 2000

As can be seen from the table below, former child migrants are an ageing group, and have an average age of approximately 60.

Table 4.10: Age of child migrants (as at December 2000)

Age	Number
Unknown	161
47	1
49	1
50	4
51	11
52	21
53	39
54	38
55	63
56	82
57	90
58	61
59	85
60	59
61	69
62	36
63	55
64	56
65	47
66	38
67	25
68	9
69	13
70	19
71	13
72	18
73	18
74	10
75	5
76	1
92	1
Average (approx.)	60

Gender of children

Of the 1,149 children sent 795 were boys (69%) and 354 were girls (31%).

Consent to Migration

Consent by birth parent(s) was given to the migration of children in 229 instances (20%). In 920 (80%) instances it is unknown whether or not parental consent was given as the documentary evidence remains unfound.

Sender

An analysis of those sending children to Australia reveals that of the 1,149 children, 65.5% appear to have been sent by the Poor Sisters of Nazareth.

Destination

Over half (52.2%) of all children who migrated went to the care of the Christian Brothers. For 7.9% of all children CCWC has no record of their destination. Details of destinations are contained in the following table.

Table 4.11: Destination of children sent to Australia

Order/Institution sent to	Location	State	Number
FCIC	Brisbane	Queensland	1
Father Carroll		Total	1
Unknown	Rockhampton	Queensland	2
Father Leahy		Total	2
FCIC	Unknown	Unknown	2
Father Stinson		Total	2
East Camberwell/Nazareth House	Melbourne	Victoria	55
Nazareth House	Geraldton	Western Australia	84
Nazareth House	Ballarat	Victoria	1
St Joseph’s	Ballarat	Victoria	1
Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	5
Nazareth Sisters		Total	146
St John Bosco’s Boys’ Town	Hobart	Tasmania	33
Salesians		Total	33
Murray Dwyer Memorial Home	Mayfield	New South Wales	31
Sisters of Charity		Total	31
Goodwood Orphanage	Adelaide	South Australia	47
St Joseph’s Home, Neerkol	Rockhampton	Queensland	54
St Brigid’s	Ryde	New South Wales	6
St Joseph’s	Subiaco	Western Australia	80
St Vincent’s	Perth	Western Australia	7
Thurgoona	Albury	New South Wales	22
Hostel (YCW)	Melbourne	Victoria	13
Sisters of Mercy		Total	229
St Joseph’s	Kellerberrin	Western Australia	7
St Joseph’s	Sydney	New South Wales	7
Sisters of the Sacred Heart		Total	14
Catholic Immigration Committee	Rockhampton	Queensland	1
Hostel (YCW)	Melbourne	Victoria	2
Tresca - Fairbridge	Western Tamar	Tasmania	2
Unknown	Unknown	New South Wales	86
Unknown		Total	91
Castledare Junior Orphanage	Cannington	Western Australia	171
Clontarf Boys’ Town	Victoria Park	Western Australia	128
Quarantine		Western Australia	2
St Mary’s Agricultural School	Tardun	Western Australia	113
St Joseph’s Farm & Trade School	Bindoon	Western Australia	171
Unknown	Unknown	Western Australia	15
Christian Brothers		Total	600
OVERALL TOTAL			1149

Deaths

There were 13 deaths recorded either in the Register or in supporting correspondence. Two were girls who died within months of arrival. The remainder were boys, mostly in road accidents.

To the above deaths have been added additional details on the deaths of former migrants as adults. In total 34 former child migrants are known to have died at the time of this analysis (December 2000).

Source: Submission No.51, Attachment 2 (Catholic Child Welfare Council). The information is based on an analysis of data provided by the Child Migrants’ Register, kept at the time, and other records in the United Kingdom and Australia. Data are current as at December 2000.

CHILD MIGRANTS - STATISTICS BY STATE

Table 4.12: Numbers of British child migrants sent to Australia - data by State: 1947-53

State/Organisation	1947	1948	1949	1950	1951	1952	1953	Total
WA
Fairbridge			42	75	61	12	49	239
Catholic	334		4	36		53	164	591
Other	15	12	24	18	12	8	42	131
						Sub Total		961
NSW
Fairbridge	28	42	20	34	12	30	28	194
Catholic				22		42		64
Other	38	22	24	65	36	33	45	263
						Sub Total		521
VIC
Northcote		20	27	13	14	4	5	83
Catholic			15	16		6	30	67
Other				56	11	10	5	82
						Sub Total		232
QLD
Catholic					36			36
Other				7	1	23	7	38
						Sub Total		74
SA
Catholic			42	4				46
Other				16				16
						Sub Total		62
TAS
Catholic						39		39
Other					6	2	1	9
						Sub Total		48
Totals	415	96	198	368	183	262	376	1 898

Source: Sherington, G and Jeffery, C, Fairbridge: Empire and Child Migration, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, 1998, p.231.

Western Australia

While unaccompanied child migrants had been coming to Western Australia under various schemes since the 1830’s, the Fairbridge Society was the first government-assisted scheme.

Kingsley Fairbridge popularised the farm school movement, initially supported by a land grant from the Western Australian government and sponsorship from the Child Emigration Society of Oxford. The first group of 13 child migrants arrived in WA in 1913.

The Depression bought a halt to government assistance to immigration, apart from a small number of Fairbridge children.

Assisted immigration resumed in 1938 on a small scale. The Christian Brothers began their child migration scheme and in 1938 and 1939 some three groups of boys, 116 in all, sailed for WA to be educated and trained by the Christian Brothers.

Immigration ceased with the outbreak of WWII. By this time 1,290 child migrants had been sent to Western Australia, 1,174 of these to Fairbridge.

The Fairbridge Society, the Catholic Church, the Church of England and the Methodist Church, played major roles in post-war child migration to WA.

In 1947, the first post war child migrants (nearly 500) were sent to Australia, most of them (over 300) received by the Christian Brothers in WA. The Christian Brothers cared for children sent by UK Catholic agencies together with 300 Maltese child migrants. This Order operated four institutions that received child migrants, viz Tardun, Bindoon, Clontarf and Castledare. Throughout the years of Catholic child migration, the Christian Brothers received approximately 1140 children.

The Church of England Society (and Advisory Council) for Empire Settlement began its work with Swanleigh and in total arranged for the emigration of some 273 children to Swanleigh.

Fairbridge continued its work through the Child Emigration Society (Oxford) and the Children’s Farm School Society of WA and received 346 post war child migrants. Fairbridge also received child migrants sent by Barnardo’s. During the operation of its child migrant scheme Fairbridge received a total of 1520 children (1,174 pre-war and 346 post-war) - the highest number of children of all the child migrant schemes.

The United Kingdom National Children’s Homes (Methodist Church) arranged for the emigration of only 8 children to Mofflyn.

In the period 1947 to 1950 a number of Catholic women’s religious Orders - notably the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of Nazareth - entered the field of child migration.

Child migrants were initially sent to one of ten receiving agencies, viz Nazareth House (96), St Joseph’s Leederville (110), St Vincent’s (30), Tardun (220), Bindoon (244), Castledare (250), Clontarf (190), Mofflyn (8), Swanleigh (273) and Fairbridge (1,520). In total, 1,651 children emigrated under the post-war child migrant schemes.

Source: Submission No.135, pp.1-3 (WA Department for Family & Children’s Services).

Queensland

The Queensland Government stated that a total of 125 British child migrants were admitted to two homes between 1950-51 and 1958-9:

St Joseph’s Home, Neerkol 48

Salvation Army Home, Riverview 77

Total 125

Source: Submission No.146, p.1 (Queensland Government).

Tasmania

The Tasmanian Government provided statistics on the numbers of child migrants sent to Tasmania in the post-war period:

St John Bosco Boys’ Town, Hobart (Roman Catholic): 1952 33 (37)*

Clarendon Children’s Home, Kingston (Church of England): 1950-1960 18

Tresca House, Exeter (Fairbridge) :1958 13

Hagley Farm School (Fairbridge) :1952-55 9

Total 73 (77)*

* Numbers vary depending on data source

Source: Submission No.144, pp.1-2 (Tasmanian Government). The submission stated that 300 ‘child migrants’ were sent to Tasmania from 1949-76, however, this number includes 161 children aged 15 to17 years sent under the auspices of the Big Brother Movement and 54 children sent under the Fairbridge scheme whereby children migrated in advance of, or accompanied by, one or both parents.