British child migrants sent to Australia prepare to sue for abuse.
JESSICA van VONDEREN: To our other stories now and the cruelty suffered by child migrants who were sent here from England has been back in the headlines lately with the release of the movie "Oranges and Sunshine". The British and Australian Governments have made apologies, but the Fairbridge Foundation involved in the scheme has refused to agree to a settlement with their former charges. Today 65 former students of the Fairbridge Farm School began unprecedented court action, suing the organisation and the Federal and State Governments claiming they turned a blind eye to years of abuse. Deborah Cornwall reports.
BOB STEVENS, FORMER CHILD MIGRANT: I never had a childhood like so many here. It was taken from me.
KEN FOWLIE, SLATER & GORDON LAWYERS: So today we start in earnest a fight for justice. Many have suffered terribly. Their lives have been really ruined by what happened to them at this school.
(FOOTAGE OF FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL AND CHILDREN)
DEBORAH CORNWALL: Once home to 900 British children, it's almost four decades since Fairbridge Farm School closed its doors. But it's only now, well into middle age, many of those children are starting to give up their terrible secrets.
(FOOTAGE OF PAST STUDENTS GATHERING TODAY)
DEBORAH CORNWALL: Launching a class action today against Fairbridge and the State in the hope that finally they'll be heard.
LENNIE MAGEE, FORMER FAIRBRIDGE WARD: I cried till I felt I was going to break inside. I'd curl up in a foetal position. I can remember just curling up in the corner and just wanting to die as a child.
VIVIAN BINGHAM, 7.30 REPORT 2007: He molested me when I was five years old. And I do remember sitting on the steps, and at night time when I went to bed, rocking backwards and forwards in my bed.
RON SIMPSON, "LONG JOURNEY HOME" 2009: He tore my pants off and he sodomised me. I was about 13. I don't know how they can do it to people
DEBORAH CORNWALL: Based in central New South Wales Fairbridge Farm School was sponsored by the Grace and favour of British Royalty, held up at the time as a shining beacon of the child migrant scheme.
(FOOTAGE OF SHIP WITH CHILD MIGRANTS)
BROADCASTER: Soon on their way to Fairbridge Farm at Molong one of a series of farm schools founded by the late Kingsley Fairbrige a Rhode Scholar who conceded the idea whilst at Oxford 40 years ago.
DEBORAH CORNWALL: British waifs as young as four were sent across the globe sacrificed by their parents on the promise of a better life for their children.
DAVID HILL, AUTHOR "THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN": The idea was to take these miserable wretches from the underclass and the underbelly of British society and to make them long limbed and healthy toiling in the sun
DEBORAH CORNWALL: Former Fairbrige ward and high profile public administrator, David Hill has often been touted by Fairbridge as one of its greatest success stories. His memories of Fairbridge were Dickensian dormitories, fly blown food and relentless chores.
DAVID HILL: See I was one of the lucky ones. I didn't get there till I was 12 nearly 13. I had a twin and an older brother. I was only there three years. I had a mum.
DEBORAH CORNWALL: It wasn't until 2006, after teaming up with an old classmate to produce a book and documentary on Fairbridge, he learned of the horrific abuses many of the children had endured and the magnitude of their betrayal by the authorities.
IAN BAYLIFF, FORMER FAIRBRIDGE WARD: When I first came here I would have probably be about that high.
DEBORAH CORNWALL: Ian Bayliff says his experience was typical of many of the Fairbridge children. Terrorised by the cottage mothers who were supposed to protect them, he says most grew up believing their parents were dead or had abandoned them only to discover, decades later, efforts by parents to get them back had been blocked by Fairbridge, insisting the children were happier without them.
IAN BAYLIFF, 7.30 REPORT 2009: Why would I be happy? She used to flog the living daylights out of us.
LENNIE MAGEE: I had no mother no father no one to complain to and we were being brutalised by this awful woman. We were always demeaned. We were constantly told that we were there because we were guttersnipes, we were slum children. We would never make anything of ourselves.
(FOOTAGE OF CHILDREN ARRIVING AT FAIRBRIDGE FARM)
DEBORAH CORNWALL: In fact Fairbridge Farm only ever accepted children with IQ's above 90. But once at Fairbridge, the children's grades dropped so dramatically more than 40% of them would later be deemed in the language of the day "educationally retarded".
(FOOTAGE OF CHILDREN WORKING FARMS AND DRIVING TRACTORS)
DEBORAH CORNWALL: And most of the children forced to leave school early anyway because Fairbridge relied almost entirely, on child labour.
DAVID HILL: These people were cheated. These people even aside from the cases of abuse and neglect these people were denied the opportunities that were promised to them. Half these people can't even read or write properly. They are semi literate. They were never even given a decent education.
DEBORAH CORNWALL: Former children's institutions have since admitted what they did to the child migrants was wrong, even barbaric and both British and Australian Governments have apologised for the damage done. But Fairbridge Foundation alone, it seems, has continued to deny it was aware of any serious mistreatment of children under its care.
KEN FOWLIE: We're talking about children who were four five six seven years of age. Complaints were coming out of the farm and up through the system and yet nothing was done to rectify this situation for these children.
DEBORAH CORNWALL: Lawyers for Fairbridge and the State have declined to comment during the proceedings and have called on the former wards to produce evidence of their allegations. The Fairbridge children now have their day in Court, but, says David Hill, any compensation will almost certainly be too little too late.
DAVID HILL: Every childhood lasts a lifetime. You maim a child and you'll end up with a maimed adult.
JESSICA van VONDEREN: To our other stories now and the cruelty suffered by child migrants who were sent here from England has been back in the headlines lately with the release of the movie "Oranges and Sunshine". The British and Australian Governments have made apologies, but the Fairbridge Foundation involved in the scheme has refused to agree to a settlement with their former charges. Today 65 former students of the Fairbridge Farm School began unprecedented court action, suing the organisation and the Federal and State Governments claiming they turned a blind eye to years of abuse. Deborah Cornwall reports.
BOB STEVENS, FORMER CHILD MIGRANT: I never had a childhood like so many here. It was taken from me.
KEN FOWLIE, SLATER & GORDON LAWYERS: So today we start in earnest a fight for justice. Many have suffered terribly. Their lives have been really ruined by what happened to them at this school.
(FOOTAGE OF FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL AND CHILDREN)
DEBORAH CORNWALL: Once home to 900 British children, it's almost four decades since Fairbridge Farm School closed its doors. But it's only now, well into middle age, many of those children are starting to give up their terrible secrets.
(FOOTAGE OF PAST STUDENTS GATHERING TODAY)
DEBORAH CORNWALL: Launching a class action today against Fairbridge and the State in the hope that finally they'll be heard.
LENNIE MAGEE, FORMER FAIRBRIDGE WARD: I cried till I felt I was going to break inside. I'd curl up in a foetal position. I can remember just curling up in the corner and just wanting to die as a child.
VIVIAN BINGHAM, 7.30 REPORT 2007: He molested me when I was five years old. And I do remember sitting on the steps, and at night time when I went to bed, rocking backwards and forwards in my bed.
RON SIMPSON, "LONG JOURNEY HOME" 2009: He tore my pants off and he sodomised me. I was about 13. I don't know how they can do it to people
DEBORAH CORNWALL: Based in central New South Wales Fairbridge Farm School was sponsored by the Grace and favour of British Royalty, held up at the time as a shining beacon of the child migrant scheme.
(FOOTAGE OF SHIP WITH CHILD MIGRANTS)
BROADCASTER: Soon on their way to Fairbridge Farm at Molong one of a series of farm schools founded by the late Kingsley Fairbrige a Rhode Scholar who conceded the idea whilst at Oxford 40 years ago.
DAVID HILL, AUTHOR "THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN": The idea was to take these miserable wretches from the underclass and the underbelly of British society and to make them long limbed and healthy toiling in the sun
DEBORAH CORNWALL: Former Fairbrige ward and high profile public administrator, David Hill has often been touted by Fairbridge as one of its greatest success stories. His memories of Fairbridge were Dickensian dormitories, fly blown food and relentless chores.
DAVID HILL: See I was one of the lucky ones. I didn't get there till I was 12 nearly 13. I had a twin and an older brother. I was only there three years. I had a mum.
DEBORAH CORNWALL: It wasn't until 2006, after teaming up with an old classmate to produce a book and documentary on Fairbridge, he learned of the horrific abuses many of the children had endured and the magnitude of their betrayal by the authorities.
IAN BAYLIFF, FORMER FAIRBRIDGE WARD: When I first came here I would have probably be about that high.
DEBORAH CORNWALL: Ian Bayliff says his experience was typical of many of the Fairbridge children. Terrorised by the cottage mothers who were supposed to protect them, he says most grew up believing their parents were dead or had abandoned them only to discover, decades later, efforts by parents to get them back had been blocked by Fairbridge, insisting the children were happier without them.
IAN BAYLIFF, 7.30 REPORT 2009: Why would I be happy? She used to flog the living daylights out of us.
LENNIE MAGEE: I had no mother no father no one to complain to and we were being brutalised by this awful woman. We were always demeaned. We were constantly told that we were there because we were guttersnipes, we were slum children. We would never make anything of ourselves.
(FOOTAGE OF CHILDREN ARRIVING AT FAIRBRIDGE FARM)
DEBORAH CORNWALL: In fact Fairbridge Farm only ever accepted children with IQ's above 90. But once at Fairbridge, the children's grades dropped so dramatically more than 40% of them would later be deemed in the language of the day "educationally retarded".
(FOOTAGE OF CHILDREN WORKING FARMS AND DRIVING TRACTORS)
DEBORAH CORNWALL: And most of the children forced to leave school early anyway because Fairbridge relied almost entirely, on child labour.
DAVID HILL: These people were cheated. These people even aside from the cases of abuse and neglect these people were denied the opportunities that were promised to them. Half these people can't even read or write properly. They are semi literate. They were never even given a decent education.
DEBORAH CORNWALL: Former children's institutions have since admitted what they did to the child migrants was wrong, even barbaric and both British and Australian Governments have apologised for the damage done. But Fairbridge Foundation alone, it seems, has continued to deny it was aware of any serious mistreatment of children under its care.
KEN FOWLIE: We're talking about children who were four five six seven years of age. Complaints were coming out of the farm and up through the system and yet nothing was done to rectify this situation for these children.
DEBORAH CORNWALL: Lawyers for Fairbridge and the State have declined to comment during the proceedings and have called on the former wards to produce evidence of their allegations. The Fairbridge children now have their day in Court, but, says David Hill, any compensation will almost certainly be too little too late.
DAVID HILL: Every childhood lasts a lifetime. You maim a child and you'll end up with a maimed adult.
