Records of Fairbridge Society [copies]

This collection of the Records of the Fairbridge Society contains microfilm and now digitised copies of originals held by the Fairbridge Society, London and Liverpool University Archives, UK. This collection was created as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project. Records in this collection include administrative material relating to the Fairbridge Society, correspondence with the Northcote Trust, information about members of the Fairbridge Society visiting Australia, and photo albums of groups sent to Fairbridge Pinjarra, the Northcote Farm School and Fairbridge Molong.

This collection was originally copied onto microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project. It was later digitised and is available online through the National Library of Australia.

Access Conditions

Open access. Available for reference.

Records

These records primarily relate to the management of the Fairbridge Society, including the administration of the Society, correspondence, minutes of meetings and appointments of staff. These records also include proposed expansion activities which did not occur, including extension of Fairbridge activities into Queensland and New Zealand. There are also minutes of the Western Australian and New South Wales sub-committees, and a series of papers on Fairbridge Pinjarra.

There is a series which includes correspondence with the Northcote Trust, which ran the Northcote Farm School in Victoria. While Northcote Farm School operated independently of the Fairbridge Society, the Farm School was based on Fairbridge principles, and the Fairbridge Society was represented by a position on the Northcote Trust Board. The Fairbridge Society also selected many of the children in the UK who were then sent to Northcote. and there was a financial arrangement between the two organisations regarding the administration of the children prior to leaving the UK.

The records about the Northcote Farm School include lists of children residing on the farm, periodic reports on individual children (usually in response to enquiries by family members), discussions about staffing and references to incidents involving children, including abuse and corporal punishment.

The collection also includes three series of photograph albums:

• Photographs of Fairbridge groups sent to Western Australia, 1912-1951
• Photographs of groups sent to Northcote Farm School, 1937-1939
• Photograph of groups sent to Molong, 1938-1952.

These photograph albums generally include the children’s names, and sometimes additional information such as when they left Fairbridge and sometimes the names of the institutions in the UK they were sent from.

All material in this collection has been digitised and available through the NLA website.