articles/lectures, Child Migrants, photos

Recruited from Nazareth House, UK

by Oliver Cosgrove (guest author) on 12 July, 2011

Read the Catholic ‘Record’ newspaper’s report of the arrival of young Oliver Cosgrove, one of 65 children on board the SS ‘New Australia’ in 1953.

Oliver, aged four, and pictured on the right in the image below, was recruited from Nazareth House, London for the voyage. The ‘New Australia’ arrived on 22nd February 1953.

The report below is from the Perth Catholic newspaper, The Record, Thursday 26 February, 1953.

The photographs below were taken of the 1952 Christmas party at Nazareth House Hammersmith, London. One month later, some of these children boarded the ‘New Australia’.

A child migrant saw the photos on the noticeboard, removed them and brought them with her to Australia.

Forgotten Australians

Invisible thread

by Maree Giles (guest author) on 20 October, 2010

Maree Giles is a former inmate of Parramatta Girls’ Training Home is now an Australian author, editor, poet, journalist, creative writing teacher and mentor, and the mother of two grown-up children. She  was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Kingston University, London, 2009 and 2010, and is currently a dissertation supervisor on their Creative Writing MFA.

She is the author of  Under the Green Moon and The Past Is A Secret Country. Maree’s debut novel Invisible Thread is based on her experiences in Parramatta Home.

Her poem under a lucky sky is also based on her time in the Home.

Forgotten Australians, memories

Britain apologises to former child migrants

by Adele on 1 March, 2010

On February 24, 2010, at a reception in Westminster Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologised on behalf of the nation for Britain’s role in sending thousands of children overseas until the late 1960s.

Child Migrant Apology

Mr Harold Haig, the secretary of the International Child Migrants Association, responded to the Prime Minister’s apology on behalf of child migrants and their families.

Child Migrant Apology – Response