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On 20 September 1999, the National Archives released its Research Guide, No 11 which explores resources for the study of the most controversial subject which the Guides have tackled to date: viz. child and youth migration before and after World War II - a subject which has come under savage media scrutiny over the last ten years.

 

Over the years, 19013, thousands of unaccompanied young people, mainly from the UK -- some from Malta -- came or were sent to Australia as permanent citizens, a small percentage of the 3,000,000 immigrants who arrived during those eighty years. However, juvenile immigration was special: for some, it evoked romantic images of Britain's finest voyaging to the end of the earth 'to farm the imperial frontier' - to take their places in protecting the vast fraternal empire on which the sun never set; for others, juvenile immigration awoke generous humanitarian feelings as a young nation offered sanctuary and 'a fresh start to youngsters who had commenced life's journey abandoned, deprived, the victims of grinding poverty at the margins of the old society.

 

Child and youth migration were special before World War II; incomprehensible or worse, viewed in retrospect, The records in the National Archives collection are a rich source of information about the political context of juvenile immigration, the processes of government decision-making and administrative practice -- and information about many of the young people who came. There are some 300 files in the National Archives which bear on different aspects of a vast subject.

 

The discussion of the records is prefaced by an introduction to the subject and a child migration Time-Line. Thereafter, the files are arranged in eight chapters, the first of which explores child migration policy, and the others focus on the service organisations, which arranged the immigration of the children: the Fairbridge Society, Big Brother Movement, Dreadnought Trust, Barnardo's, the Boy Scouts, YMCA, Australian Jewish Welfare Society, the Young Australia League (WA),and the Overseas Settlement Board. Each organisation's contribution is prefaced by a short introduction. Overall, the book around 200 pages in length.

 

In addition, there are numerous files arranged and discussed on the various organisations within the Catholic and Protestant churches -- the Christian Brothers, Sisters of Nazareth and Sisters of Mercy -- on the one hand and Salvation Army, Anglican and Presbyterian churches on the other. There is a special section to assist Genealogical researchers.

 

There are ten Appendices to make the Guide more user-friendly. These include a 'Who was Who' guide to child migration personalities; an outline of the voluntary organisations working in the field, the Records held by the Australian state archives on the subject, an outline of the material in the Public Record Office, Kew, Surrey, and of the vast holdings of the University of Liverpool which has the Fairbridge and Barnardo's papers There is a comprehensive address list of organisations assisting former child and youth migrants to access relatives and a full Bibliography. The book is indispensable for the further informed study of child migration.

 

The Guide is available from Publication Sales, National Archives of Australia, P.O. Box 7425, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610. Tel: (02) 6212 1 3600; Fax: (02) 6212 - 3699 and email: archives@naa.gov.au The Guide is priced at $10 -- the Archives views the release of the Research Guides as a service.

 

The author, Dr Barry Coldrey, was born in Melbourne and completed all his tertiary studies at Melbourne University. His Ph D was published in Ireland as 'Faith and Fatherland' in 1989. He has had extensive teaching and lecturing experience in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Pakistan. Since 1979, he has published some twenty books and a dozen referred articles, many of them on child migration.

 

 

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