This page is unlike others on Find & Connect describing archival collections, in that it lists records known to have existed at some point in the past, but the whereabouts and very existence of which are currently not known.
The United Aborigines Mission (UAM) was wound up at the end of 2020. In 2022, the Find & Connect web resource was advised by Sharrock Pitman lawyers that the following postal address was now the only contact information for UAM Ministries.
PO Box 172 Vermont, Victoria, 3133
David Reid, Minister of Religion and Accountant and former director of the UAM, swore an affidavit for the Yoorrook Justice Commission on 2 November 2023 which stated that the historical records of UAM, which were in storage in Williamstown, Victoria, were all destroyed following flooding in around July 2020, which was said to have resulted in “serious contamination”.
The affidavit states that the destroyed records comprised “federal office files” and that “very few files produced by the NSW, SA and WA offices were in the archives in Melbourne. Those which did come to Melbourne were mostly copies of correspondence relating to the operations in those states. The federal office did not have files for the children’s homes run by the Mission in NSW (Bomaderry) and SA (Colebrook) as these were State Council responsibilities”.
Reid swore that “I am not aware of any other UAM historical records”, other than those that were transferred to the State Library of South Australia and Aboriginal Affairs NSW in late 2022.
Reid’s affidavit contradicts the information that the Find & Connect web resource has compiled from publicly available sources about UAM historical records known to have existed.