The Forgotten Children: Fairbridge Farm School and Its Betrayal of Australia's Child Migrants. by Hill, David - 2007

Sydney, North Sydney: Random House, 2007. Reprint ed.. Paperback octavo, very good condition, black & white photos, edges faintly foxed, minor edgewear. 338 pp. In 1959, the the mother of David Hill - a poor single parent living in England reluctantly decided to send her sons to Fairbridge Farm School near Molong in New South Wales. She was told they would have a better education. From 1938 to 1974 thousands of parents were persuaded to sign over legal guardianship of their children to Fairbridge to solve the problem of child poverty in Britain, while at the same time populating the colony. This book tells their stories from the bizarre luxury of the voyage out to Australia to the harsh reality of their daily lives in the school, and the struggles after they left. This remarkable book is both a tribute to the children who were betrayed by an ideal that went wrong and a compelling account of an extraordinary episode in British-Australian history.