Guide to the Records of the Fairbridge Society (as filmed by the AJCP)

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M1841-M1845

National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record

Created: 2019

Collection Summary

Creator
Fairbridge Society
Title
Records of the Fairbridge Society (as filmed by the AJCP)
Date Range
1912 - 1976
Collection Number
M1841-M1845
Extent
22 items
Language of Materials
English
Repository
Australian Joint Copying Project
Sponsor
The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) online portal was created with the assistance of the Australian Public Service Modernisation Fund, 2017-2020. The National Library of Australia gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the other foundation AJCP partners, the State Library of New South Wales and The National Archives of the UK, and all other organisations which supported the work of the AJCP, the world's most extensive collaborative copying project, operating from 1948 to 1997.

Introduction

Scope and Contents

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.

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.

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)

Archival History

Filmed at the Fairbridge Society, London, as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1983 (AJCP Reel: M1841-M1845). Original microfilm digitised as part of the NLA AJCP Online Delivery Project, 2017-2020.

In 1983, after the filming had been carried out, the bulk of the archives were transferred from the Fairbridge Society in London to Liverpool University Archives, although the minute books and some other records were retained by the Society.

Existence and Location of Originals

Special Collections and Archives. University of Liverpool, Chatham St, Liverpool, England.

For further information, see Special Collections and Archives. Liverpool University Library. [https://libguides.liverpool.ac.uk/library/sca/home]

Existence and Location of Copies

The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn746698] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.

Finding-Aid Notes

This finding aid is a revised online version of the original finding aid prepared by the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP), published by the National Library of Australia in 2019. The original AJCP finding aids were unpublished typescripts or photocopies available from libraries that held copies of the original microfilm.

Dates used in this finding aid refer to the date range of the records selected for filming rather than to the date range of the Series or Files.

Subjects

Australia; Coles, Sir Arthur; Crutchley, Ernest T.; Dixon, R.L.; Emigration and immigration: children; Fairbridge Society; Great Britain: Commonwealth Relations Office; Hambro, Sir Charles; Lumley, L.R.; New Zealand; Northcote Farm School, Bacchus Marsh, Victoria; Northcote Farm School, Bacchus Marsh, Victoria; Northcote Trust; Photographs; Pinjarra School, Western Australia; Pinjarra, Western Australia; Queensland; Vaughan, W.R.; Western Australia; Western Australia: education

Bibliography

Originally cited in Australian Joint Copying Project Handbook. Part 8: Miscellaneous (M) Series. Third Edition, published 1998. Entry 163, p.59. [http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-397322928]

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.

Item Descriptions

Series. Minutes and Letters, 1912 - 1952

9 items

Archival History

Originally filmed on AJCP Reels M1841-M1842.

Minutes of Executive Committee and Annual General Meeting, 1925 - 1929 (File 1)

Minutes of Executive Committee, Council and Annual General Meeting, 1929 - 1932 (File 2)

Minutes of Executive Committee, Council and Annual General Meeting, 1933 - 1938 (File 3)

Minutes of Executive Committee, Council and Annual General Meeting, 1938 - 1948 (File 4)

Minutes of Executive Committee, Council and Annual General Meeting, 1949 - 1952 (File 5)

Reports to Executive Committee, 1937 - 1944 (File 6)

Minutes of Western Australia Sub-Committee, 1937 - 1939 (File 7)

Minutes of New South Wales Sub-Committee, 1937 - 1939 (File 8)

Letterbook of G.D. Jefferson, Secretary of the Society, 1912 - 1915 (File 9)

Most of the letters were written to K. Fairbridge.

Series 10. Correspondence with Northcote Trust, 1934 - 1960

Papers concerning the visit of Lord Selborne to Australia in 1935, the 1937 agreement between the Fairbridge Society and the Northcote Trust concerning the selection and passages of boys for the Northcote Farm School at Bacchus Marsh, details of the 1938 party, management of the Farm School, appointment of V. Brown as Principal in 1942, criticisms of the selection of boys, statistics of the Farm School 1942-1944, the visit of V. Brown to England in 1946, reports on boys, the 1960 agreement between the Society and the Trust, and the Fairbridge/Northcote family schemes.

Correspondents include Lord Grey, G. Green, T. Marks, E. Baring, J. Hancock, Sir Harold Luxton (Melbourne), V. Brown, Sir Charles Hambro, Vera Grenfell, L.R. Lumley, Sir Ernest Wrexford (Melbourne), W.R. Vaughan, Sir Arthur Coles and Lord Howick.

Archival History

Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M1843.

Series 11. Correspondence and Records of Meetings with Home Office, 1945 - 1960

Papers concerning the concern of the London Committee about the management of the Pinjarra School 1937-1945, statement by the Society on the care of children while in the United Kingdom (1945), details of farm schools in England, 1947 policy statement on emigration of children, , 1951 Conference of Chairman of Children's Committees and Children's Officers, 1953 report by J. Moss on child emigration to Australia, regulations under 1948 Children's Act, meetings between Society and Home Office, and the Fairbridge family scheme (1960).

Archival History

Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M1843.

Series 12. Correspondence with Commonwealth Relations Office, 1949 - 1964

Papers concerning Australian parties, 1949 agreement between Society and Secretary of State on maintenance of Pinjarra School, Government grants for outfit of children, revision of agreements on maintenance and outfits, and one-parent family scheme.

Correspondents include R.L. Dixon, W.R. Vaughan, Lord Home, Sir Charles Hambro, R.H. Johnson and W. Peters.

Archival History

Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M1844.

Series 13. Correspondence on extension of activities to New Zealand, 1932 - 1956

Papers concerning proposals to establish a Farm School in New Zealand and to purchase Flock House, Wellington (1932-1936), visit of G. Green to New Zealand (1936), later proposals to extend activities to New Zealand, and the offer of a station at Tutira, Hawkes Bay (1941-1943).

Correspondents include M. MacDonald, G.F. Plant, T.R. Lees, Lord Bledisloe, L.R. Lumley, G.W. Forbes, A. Leigh Hunt, A. McLagan, L.O.H. Tripp, Barbara Absalom and R.A. Wiseman.

Archival History

Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M1844.

Series 14. Correspondence on extension of activities to Queensland, 1934 - 1962

Papers concerning possibility of opening Farm School in Queensland (1934-1936), negotiations on possible takeover of properties of Shaftesbury Homes (1949-1955), negotiations with Queensland Government, and selection of boys for Marsden Home at Kallangur (1953-1954).

Correspondents include N.W. Lamidey, R.L. Dixon, G.F. Plant, L.H. Pike, T.C. Crutchley, R. Cooper (Brisbane), Sir Charles Hambro, M. McAully, Sir David Muir, W.R. Vaughan and J. Litten (Melbourne).

Archival History

Originally filmed on AJCP Reels M1844-M1845.

Series 15. Correspondence concerning New South Wales and Victoria, 1952 - 1958

A small group of letters about the offer of a farm at Kiama and a proposal to establish new centres in Victoria. Correspondents include W.B. Hudson (Sydney), Sir Charles Hambro, W.R. Vaughan and W.E. Aspinall (Perth).

Archival History

Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M1845.

Series 16. Reports of Visits to Australia, 1960 - 1976

Typescript reports of official and private visits by officers of the Society to Australia in 1960, 1966, 1968, 1970 and 1976.

Archival History

Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M1845.

Series 17. Album of photographs of Australian parties, 1912 - 1951

Archival History

Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M1845.

Series 18. Album of photographs of Northcote Children's Farm parties, 1937 - 1939

Archival History

Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M1845.

Series 19. Album of photographs of Molong parties, 1938 - 1952

Archival History

Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M1845.

Series 20. Papers on Future of Fairbridge Society, 1944 - 1960

Items of interest include:

W. Garnett. Report on farm schools in Australia, 6 October 1944, together with comments by the General Secretary of Fairbridge Farm Schools.

W.R. Vaughan. Memorandum for special meeting of Executive Committee on future of Society, 22 July 1958.

Notes of meeting at Home Office on future of Family Schemes, 17 February 1960.

Newspaper cutting from 'Orange News Pictorial', 8 April 1970.

Archival History

Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M1845.

Series 21. Miscellaneous Papers on Pinjarra School, 1913 - 1939

Typescript papers including report of Farm School for quarter ending 30 June 1913, code of Fairbridge Farm School, hints to Farm School boys, rules of School, health hints, staff problem, housing problem, duties of patrol leaders and vigilantes, letter of K. Fairbridge on aims of School (1 March 1921), accounts (1938), minutes of meeting of Council held in Perth (13 July 1938), report of Principal for July-December 1938, circulars to Cottage mothers and staff (February. 1939).

Archival History

Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M1845.

Series 22. Minute Book of British Dominions Emigration Society, March 1937 - July 1961

The minutes refer to negotiations with Overseas Settlement Committee, correspondence from Australia, New Zealand and other Dominions concerning need for migrants, mission of R. Culver to Australia and New Zealand in 1938, financial matters, repayments by emigrants, cases passed by referees, and the dissolution of the Society in 1961.

Archival History

Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M1845.


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