Sydney, Australia
Forgotten Australians or care leavers are terms referring to the estimated 500,000 children (a figure that includes child migrants and Indigenous Australians) who experienced care in institutions or outside a home setting in Australia during the 20th century. The Australian Senate committee used the
term in the title of its report which resulted from its 2003–2004 "Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care", which looked primarily at those affected children who were not covered by the 1997 Bringing Them Home report, which focused on Aboriginal children, and the 2001 report Lost Innocents: Righting the Record which reported on an inquiry into child migrants. Children ended up in out-of-home care for a variety of reasons, mainly relating to poverty and family breakdown at a time when there was little support for families in crisis. Residential institutions run by government and non-government organisations were the standard form of out-of-home care during the first half of the 20th century. Children in institutions were sometimes placed in foster homes for short periods, weekends or during holiday periods. There was a move towards smaller group care from the 1950s and a move away from...
Listen to the audio guide for Forgotten Australians Free on WIP — starts by itself when you arrive, even with the screen off