Brothers Graham, Sydney and Stewart Lee, and Ian Bayliff at the Fairbridge reception centre Knockholt, Kent, UK 1955. From the 1860s for a century, British children were sent to Commonwealth countries to help populate colonies and boost labour forces.

Their stories are the focus of a new exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.

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Brothers Ian Bayliff, Stewart Lee and Sydney Lee together at the opening of the exhibition On their own – Britain’s child migrants at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney, on 10 November 2010. The men are former child migrants to Australia, from Britain. From the 1860s for a century, British children were sent to Commonwealth countries to help populate colonies and boost labour forces.

Stewart describes his 13 years at Molong as “extremely traumatic” in which he experienced “all sorts of abuses,” and says he was provided with minimal education but expected to do a normal day’s work. It is an experience that continues to effect the 60 year-old. “You can’t get over it,” he says.

Their stories are the focus of a new exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.

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Nuffield Hall dining room at Fairbridge Farm School Molong, NSW 1948.

From the 1860s for a century, British children were sent to Commonwealth countries to help populate colonies and boost labour forces. The last party of child migrants arrived in Australia by air in 1967 and the institutions housing them began closing their doors in the 1970s. Both the British and Australian governments have formally apologised for the programs.

Their stories are the focus of a new exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.

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Fourth party to Fairbridge Farm School Molong, NSW 1939.

One Australian migrant, Stewart Lee, was sent to a Fairbridge Society institution in Molong, near Orange in NSW, with his three brothers at the age of four. He says he was removed from his parents by child welfare authorities and placed on a boat bound for Australia, where he arrived on 15 March 1955. “We were told we were having a big, long holiday and we’d be going back,” he says.

Their stories are the focus of a new exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.

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Child migrants chat in bed at Fairbridge Farm School Molong, NSW. From the 1860s for a century, British children were sent to Commonwealth countries to help populate colonies and boost labour forces. About 7,000 child migrants – some as young as three years old – were brought to Australia by the Fairbridge Society and Barnardo’s with the support and approval of the Australian Government

Their stories are the focus of a new exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.

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Child migrants picking peas at the Fairbridge Farm School at Molong, NSW. Most children who were sent overseas were not orphans, but taken from their families who could not care for them. Australian child migrants include former ABC boss David Hill, and former federal Senator Andrew Murray.

Their stories are the focus of a new exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.

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Four children bound for Fairbridge Farm School Molong, NSW 1938. From the 1860s for a century, British children were sent to Commonwealth countries to help populate colonies and boost labour forces. Some succeeded and others were subjected to terrible abuse.

Their stories are the focus of a new exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.

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A caramel-speckled White’s seahorse (Hippocampus whitei) in Sydney Harbour. A colony was temporarily moved to accommodate renovations to the Watsons Bay Baths, but now their old home is ready for thier return.

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A White’s seahorse (Hippocampus whitei) in Sydney Harbour. A colony was temporarily moved to accommodate renovations to the Watsons Bay Baths, but now their old home is ready for thier return.

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A White’s seahorse (Hippocampus whitei), the species of which is native to Sydney Harbour. A colony was temporarily moved to accommodate renovations to the Watsons Bay Baths, but now their old home is ready for thier return.

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A caramel-speckled White’s seahorse (Hippocampus whitei) in Sydney Harbour. A colony was temporarily moved to accommodate renovations to the Watsons Bay Baths, but now their old home is ready for thier return.

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A White’s seahorse (Hippocampus whitei) near the algae-covered shark nets in Watsons Bay, Sydney Harbour. A colony was temporarily moved to accommodate renovations to the Watson’s Bay Baths, but their old home is now ready for thier return.

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