Guide to the Records of the Fairbridge Society (as filmed by the AJCP), 1912-1976

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Summary

Collection number:

M1841-M1845

Creator:

Fairbridge Society

Extent:

22 items

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for reference.

Background

Content Summary:

Minutes 1925-1952 of Executive Committee, Council and Annual General Meetings.

Correspondence, including files on the Northcote Trust (1934-1970), Commonwealth Relations Office (1949-1972), extension activities to New Zealand (1932-1936) and extension activities to Queensland (1934-1955). Subjects include: the selection and passages of boys for the Northcote Farm School at Bacchus Marsh; the Fairbridge/Northcote Family schemes; and farm schools in New Zealand and Queensland. Correspondents include Sir Charles Hambro, Sir Arthur Coles, L.R. Lumley, W.R. Vaughan, E.T. Crutchley and R.L. Dixon.

Papers 1913-1939 on Pinjarra School, including reports, circulars, minutes and notes.

Papers 1944-1960 on future of Fairbridge Society.

Photographs of Australian parties.

The A.J.C.P. has only filmed a small proportion of the Society's archives. In particular, no attempt was made to copy the extensive files on the parties of children from 1912 onwards, which include reports from the staff of the farm schools and letters from former Fairbridge children.

Biographical / Historical:

Kingsley Fairbridge (1885-1924) organized a meeting at the Colonial Club, Oxford, on 19 October 1909 which led to the formation of the Child Emigration Society. Fairbridge and his wife brought the first party of thirteen orphan boys to Western Australia in 1912, with the first Fairbridge Farm School being established at Pinjarra. Other Farm Schools were set up at Vancouver Island, Canada (1935), Molong, New South Wales (1937), Bacchus Marsh, Victoria (in association with the Northcote Trust, 1937), and Okanagan Valley, Canada (1938).

Changing economic and social conditions and attitudes to child emigration after World War II reduced the flow of children from Britain. The Society established schemes for large and one-parent families but encountered restrictions on emigration imposed by the Canadian and Australian governments. In 1981 the last farm school at Pinjarra closed down. The Society sold off its overseas assets and turned its attention to helping under-privileged young people in Britain.

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:: Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use:: Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.