Records of child migration to Western Australia, National Archives of Australia

Records of child migration to Western Australia (1947-1959) is a collection of documents relating to unaccompanied child migration to Australia from Britain and Malta, which is held by the National Archives of Australia (NAA). The NAA has created a Fact Sheet to help people find these documents. There may be information about the following Homes: Bindoon; Castledare; Clontarf; Fairbridge Farm, Pinjarra; Methodist Children’s Home; Nazareth House; St Joseph’s Girls’ Orphanage; St Vincent’s Foundling Home; Swan Homes; and Tardun.

The National Archives of Australia holds a lot of information about child migration to Western Australia. There may be information about the following Homes: Bindoon; Castledare; Clontarf; Fairbridge Farm, Pinjarra; Methodist Children’s Home; Nazareth House; St Joseph’s Girls’ Orphanage; St Vincent’s Foundling Home; Swan Homes; and Tardun and also about the system of child migration.

Fact Sheet 124 describes some of these records and how to access them:

As the role of the Commonwealth government was mainly that of an overseer (the programs being administered by the States), most of the records held by the Archives are general policy files. Some series of child migrant case files are held by a number of our offices. You should contact the office where the records are held to inquire if there is a record on a specific individual. Fact Sheet 124, National Archives of Australia

This collection includes:

• the L.E.M. 3 Forms which were background reports written by Australian authorities in the UK and Malta on children who were being sent to WA (some records contain more details than others)
• Passenger lists of ships which brought the child migrants to Australia
• Reports on and inquiries into Institutions
• Records relating to the Fairbridge Farm, Anglican and Roman Catholic migration schemes
• Records relating to the Children’s Overseas Reception Board scheme (evacuee children from wartime Britain)