The Forgotten Children (21 page)

Authors: David Hill

BOOK: The Forgotten Children

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In 1948 Woods was banned from using the hockey stick by the chairman of Fairbridge, after allegations of child brutality were made by Commander P. O. L. Owen. Though the New South Wales Department of Child Welfare investigation of the allegations found that the charges against Woods ‘could not be substantiated’, it did note that Woods regularly used the hockey stick to beat children, and that he had been ordered by Fairbridge not to do so in future. Woods was also ordered to cool down and not hit children in a fit of rage, and told there should be no more public floggings. The Fairbridge Council minutes recorded that:

The principal was then instructed that corporal punishment was to be given to the children only with the cane, only after several hours had elapsed from the time of the misdemeanour giving rise to the punishment and only in the presence of a third person of responsibility and that each caning was to be recorded.
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But many Fairbridge boys, including Lennie Magee and Smiley Bayliff, remember Woods occasionally using the hockey stick even ten years later. The public thrashings continued and Woods continued to punish children when he was in a fit of rage.

While Woods meted out excessive punishment, at least he only physically struck children when he felt it was warranted. Ted Begley, the dairyman, was much worse. Nearly every boy who worked for Begley has bitter memories of his savage and brutal behaviour. As David Wilson recalls:

Oh mate, he was a shocker … He seemed to do it just for the pleasure of it … There was no complaining. If you went to Woods, he’d cane you. So you didn’t want two punishments.

Former Fairbridge boy John Harris speaks highly of Fairbridge and many of the staff, but has bad recollections of Begley:

Ted Begley was out and out low life. He’d whack you, he’d kick you, knee you. If you were bending over doing up your shoelaces you’d get a number nine up your bum. You know, he’d just kick you as he went past. He was just an out-and-out bastard. Absolutely the lowest order.

Derek Moriarty remembers being beaten and kicked by Begley on his first day working as a fifteen-year-old trainee on the dairy.

He kicked me off the stool and then kicked me when I went under the cow, where you had no escape anyway. That’s exactly what happened to me on my first day on dairy … I was on hand-milking. And I think I was in the second hand-milking bail … And naturally, I’ve got my knees in front of me and … I start to get a bit of an ache, so I just went and put my foot out and as I did the kid in the next bail was walking past with a bucket of milk and he tripped. And he went one way and the bucket went that way. I didn’t know Begley was there even … Anyway, I’m sitting back there and I’m milking away and the next minute, whack! Fair in the ribs. Off the stool, on the stool, under the cow, where could you go? He just kept kicking.

Billy King says the boys were so frightened of Begley that they would buy him Christmas presents because it might save them a beating.

He was an absolute bloody bully. Yeah. I can remember even at Christmas time, all the kids, we used to have to chuck in to buy him a Christmas present. And we didn’t have any money, and to this day, I think the only reason the kids bought him a Christmas present is [that they thought they] might save themselves a bloody hiding for a fortnight or something.

I was not aware of sexual abuse while I was at Fairbridge, though many former Fairbridge children say they were victims.

Mary O’Brien, who came out in the same party as me, says she was regularly sexually abused at Fairbridge and kept it to herself for decades. At fourteen, she was moved out of her cottage and assigned to live and work in Gloucester House, where visiting Old Fairbridgians and other visitors stayed. It was also the home of the after care officer, Mr W. Phillips, and his family.

That was considered a privilege, to go and live with these people in Gloucester House. I went to live there with them and I shared a bedroom with their daughter, but really I was just a domestic there. I was expected to clean up for them and serve them and their visitors.
… But it was the most degrading part of my life, the most humiliating part of my life. They treated me – he [Mr Phillips] treated me – like shit, sexually abused me.
He would wait until his wife was asleep and then come into the bedroom I shared with his daughter when she was asleep and regularly abuse me. I would then be expected to serve him breakfast and clean up after him next morning.
I didn’t mention it to anybody because I thought it was just happening to me. I had no idea whether other children were having problems.

Vivian Bingham recalls as a five-year-old being sexually abused in the vegetable garden sheds by Jack Newberry, who was the garden supervisor at the time.

I managed to get down to the veggie patch – I don’t know how I got down there – and they had a shed down there and I managed to find the shed and also managed to find Mr Newberry too.
He didn’t – well, he didn’t actually penetrate, you know, he didn’t actually – he touched me, you know. It’s hard to talk about it – it has to be talked about but it is very hard to talk about that part. And I couldn’t go and tell anyone. I was a scared little rat and plus, you know, he said, ‘You tell and you get it worse.’ Well, you’re a child. You’re just scared. So I just shut up and got on with life.

Liz Sharp, who went to Fairbridge as a nine-year-old in 1962, has spoken out about being sexually abused by a number of older males while she was at Fairbridge, including Jack Newberry when he was the principal.

Jack Newberry touched me up. I had three other people sexually abuse me at Fairbridge other than Jack Newberry. I must have been just one of those people that had ‘victim’ written on their forehead …
We were in Molong Cottage and we were allowed in to her [the cottage mother’s] quarters to watch a movie on television with her and her husband. It must have been winter and there were blankets over everybody and I was sitting near my friends and he was sitting next to me and I mean, he even shoved his hands up inside me then … She must have known what he was like and she must have known he had me. Who do you tell? Because no one wants to know anyway. And then they don’t believe you and then you’re accused of being a liar.

Christina Murray is another who did not tell anyone about being sexually abused at Fairbridge for many decades. Christina arrived in Australia in 1939 with the Northcote child-migrant scheme and was transferred to Fairbridge in 1944. It was not until she was in her seventies – almost sixty years later – that she discussed the abuse. She says, ‘Well, I won’t mention that man’s name, but I was sexually abused at sixteen at Fairbridge and I thought it was the law [of the place].’ She didn’t tell anyone at the time as ‘There was nowhere to go because they wouldn’t believe you’.

While some former Fairbridge boys say they were aware of sexual abuse of boys – often by older boys – few are willing to say that it happened to them. One exception is Derek Moriarty, who recalls being molested by an older boy and has finally spoken out about it.

I had two occasions where he interfered with me and I’ve never told anybody this in my life. And I thought I was going to take it to my grave. I just … it haunts me every now and again, and I never mentioned it to anyone before because I’m embarrassed about it. Even though it wasn’t my doing.
Well, what I’ve seen and heard in the last couple of years, you know, it’s really sort of sickening and I thought to myself if everybody’s embarrassed and nobody says anything, it will go on. And it has to be stopped. It may never be stopped but certainly an effort has to be made. So, while we’ve all been in denial, I bet there’s a lot more people besides myself that are in the same denial – and I’ve stated it publicly many, many times, you know: ‘It didn’t happen at Fairbridge.’ It did and I don’t know to what extent. But it happened to me and I would say I’m probably too embarrassed about it. I shouldn’t be but I’m probably more embarrassed now that I’ve kept it under my hat for so long.

Robert Stephens, who arrived by himself at Fairbridge as an eight-year-old, is still upset by abuse he suffered from an older Fairbridge boy:

Look, there was a guy … who used to go around taking underwear from the [girls’] cottages and it was put on me and I had the most terrible time for months and months afterwards. And it never left me.
I was just that stupid young kid, and it traumatically – I mean, it just left me numb. And the ostracism of it. And later on, he admitted it. And it went on for months and months. It was just for me a terrible, terrible time.

When they came to Fairbridge most of the children had expected to find a happy, nurturing place of material generosity. What made the abuse so traumatic and difficult to handle was that they had nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Many remember being confused and frightened, and instinctively looking for the protection of a parent. Their pain and distress are perhaps captured in these words from Vivian Bingham: