ABSTRACT
The history of child migration in Australia is in many ways a history of cruelty, lies and deceit. For instance, children were told that their parents were dead; that they came from deprived backgrounds; that they had been "rescued" and should be grateful. Many children had genuinely been adopted in the United Kingdom but their adoptions had subsequently broken down. They had been returned to the adoption agency, and promptly dispatched to Australia. The adoption order was ignored and the natural parents were never told and were totally unaware that their child was thousands of miles away. Children who were sent to Australia with brothers and sisters were also promised they would all be kept together. Yet often they were split up on arrival and either never saw their brothers and sisters again, or too rarely to have a normal brother and sister relationship. The children sent to Australia had practically no chance of being adopted or fostered on arrival.
