Kingsley Fairbridge and the Fairbridge Farm School

Kingsley Fairbridge (5 May 1885 – 19 July 1924) was the founder of a child emigration scheme to the British colonies, and the Fairbridge Farm Schools. His life work was the founding of the “Society for the Furtherance of Child Emigration to the Colonies”, which was afterwards incorporated as the “Child Emigration Society” and ultimately the “Fairbridge Society”.

Throughout his life, Kingsley Fairbridge never lost sight of his aim to provide assistance to children who had very little chance of a successful life in the overcrowded cities of Britain.

In March 1912 Kingsley Fairbridge and his wife Ruby sailed for Western Australia with 2000 pounds. A property of 160 acres was purchased near Pinjarra about 60 miles (97 km) south of Perth, with the  Western Australian government  agreeing to pay 6 pounds for each child towards the cost of the passage money.

After several months of clearing of the property, as well as building basic accommodation (mainly tents), the first party of 13 boys, aged between 7 and 13, arrived in January 1913. In July they were followed by a second group of 22 boys.

There were severe financial difficulties during World War I until the government provided a grant that assisted the school through the war period. In August 1919 Kingsley Fairbridge went to England and managed to raise a sum of 27,000 pounds for the development of the school. The British Government’s Overseas Settlement Committee provided 20,000 pounds on condition that the Western Australian Government continued its grant of 6 shillings per week per child.

Kingsley Fairbridge died at the early age of 39 of a  lymphatic tumour and was buried at his school. The Fairbridge Farm School continued under a principal. At the time of Kingsley Fairbridge’s death, 200 children were at the school, and enrolment gradually reached a peak of 400.

The Old Fairbridgians’ Association of Western Association was formed in 1930 to serve as a benevolent organisation to enhance the welfare of Old Fairbridgians, those children whose home for part of their lives was at the Kingsley Fairbridge Farm School near Pinjarra in Western Australia.

The Old Fairbridgians’ Association hosts a Founder’s Day in honour of Kingsley Fairbridge. Each year on the Sunday closest to Kingsley’s passing (July 19 1924) many Old Fairbridgians make a pilgrimage to Fairbridge Farm and remember Kingsley and also meet up with old friends over lunch in the Clubhouse. All Old Fairbridgians and friends of Fairbridge are very welcome.

This year the Founder’s Day is being held on Sunday July 17, commencing with a service in the chapel at 11.00 am to commemorate the death of Kingsley Fairbridge, followed by lunch in the Old Fairbridgians’ Association clubhouse.

For more information on Kingsley Fairbridge and the Fairbridge Farm School, go to the Old Fairbridgians’ Association website:  http://www.fairbridgekids.com/ofa.htm

Coolgardie as Matrimonial Field (1896!)

In 1896, this article taken from the local rag “Pioneer” encouraged “spinsters” to come to Coolgardie and seek husbands, whilst also warning that they may end up playing second fiddle to their husbands’ love of gold, gambling and drinking with their mates at the pub!

The West Australian, 19 February 1896.

You can view the article in it’s original form here on Trove.

COOLGARDIE AS A MATRIMONIAL FIELD – Coolgardie, according to the local Pioneer is as promising a matrimonial field as a goldfield. “Most of us” (writes the Pioneer) “are tired of single wretchedness, and we are feeling a distaste for dwellings where the feminine element is ever absent. In all trepidation we might point out to the girls in the East that Coolgardie is a fine field for matrimony. Here we have thousands of marriageable men, good-looking, high-spirited men, too – the making of honest husbands who could be lassoed into captivity with ease, and who, we are sure, would never regret the pleasant bondage.

We advise the fair spinsters of the East to come over, ensuring them of a hearty welcome in this land of gold and love. Husbands and gold rings are to be picked up here easily, when feminine grace and pretty fripperies stoop to conquer. They may have to put up with many little inconveniences, such as we have pointed out, but it would be their privilege to alter the prevailing state of affairs and win men from their attachment to the bar to that of a staunch allegiance to the cradle. And any woman worth her salt would find that not only an easy task but a congenial task.”

There is, however, another side to the picture for the same paper in the same article says: “Women who follow their husbands to the goldfields must be content to play second fiddle. The man looks upon speculation as his mistress, the bar, the open call, and the club as his companions. They become more essential, and, we regret to say, often more attractive to him than the canvas home and the wife’s conversation.

A goldfield ruins a man for domestic life, for what man can enjoy cold mutton, or even hot roast beef, with his wife, after boarding at a first-class hotel where he meets brainy men who give him an appetite? On a goldfield men of keen intelligence congregate, and they imbibe a love for gambling and speculation. Many of them will never settle down again, but wander from field to field making and losing fortunes. Travel they may enjoy, or life in the metropolis, but never again the domestic hearth and the constant ripple of a woman’s tongue”.

General view Londonderry Mine, Coolgardie, 1895?

Over one hundred years later, Bernard Salt similarly suggested that single women make their way to a mining town in his 2008 book, “Man Drought”. According to Salt, the town with the best ratio of single men to single women on the Australian continent at the time of the 2006 census was the resources town of Glenden 165 km west of Mackay in Queensland.

Did you, or someone you know find love while working in a mining town? We would love to hear your story in the comments section below!

Fashion through the decades

Fashion lovers of Perth have been busy this week, spoiled by a choice selection of events as part of the 2010 Perth Fashion Festival.

There is no question that the Western Australian fashion industry is making a name for itself with the talent and innovation of local designers showcased through world-class catwalk shows, exciting retail events, inspiring workshops and vibrant performances throughout the city and metro area.

Interested in the history of the fashion industry in Perth? Let’s take a journey back down the catwalk via the State Library’s pictorial collection to discover the trends throughout the decades (and find out how far we’ve come!).

1950s

1960′s

1970s

1980s

For more information on browsing the State Library’s Pictorial Collection, click here.

Unique Diary donated to State Library

A recent gift to the State Library of W.A. has provided W.A. researchers with a unique link in the theological history of our state.

 
Law firm Minter Ellison, who trace their origins back to early Perth law firm Northmore, Hale Davey and Leake, founded in 1890, have long been in possession of a handwritten copy of a diary written by Rev. John Ramsden Wollaston on his journey from England to Western Australia in 1840 – 1841.
Rev. Wollaston was 50 when he arrived in W.A., having been commissioned by the church to establish a parish in the Bunbury/Australind area, and so founded the Anglican church at Picton. He later moved on to Albany and was subsequently appointed Archdeacon with responsibility for all of Western Australia. As Archdeacon he made 5 tours of his area of responsibility, each tour covering 1000 miles on horseback, largely through virgin bushland.

 
His diary “Journey from Gravesend to the Swan River, 1840-1841 in the Ship “Henry” (Capt Todd) 26/11/1840-19/4/1841 tells of daily life aboard ship and contains observations of birds, fish, the weather and countries visited on the way to Western Australia.

 
The handwritten copy donated by Minter Ellison was made by Canon Alfred Burton, a prolific theological historian who published scores of works on the establishment and growth of the church and church schools in W.A.

 
The diary will now be treated with a view to long term preservation and made available to researchers wishing to further explore the history of Rev. John Ramsden Wollaston.

Swan River Stories

Have you got a Swan River story? Please help our Battye Fellow Dr Sue Graham-Taylor with her work on the history of the Swan River.

Do you remember swimming classes in the River, prawning parties by lamp light, boating and yachting? Do you remember ferry trips, picnics by the River? Have you camped by the river, caught a fish, swum with your horse, or jumped off a cliff or a bridge into the River?

What are some of the events that you have attended on the Perth Esplanade? Have you been attacked by a shark? Did you ever eat a hamburger or dance at Bernies? Are you old enough to have visited Perth’s White City and what was it like before the Government closed it down for reasons of morality? Please share your story with others by emailing your story to Sue Graham-Taylor at sue.graham-taylor@slwa.wa.gov.au.

Aliens in Western Australia

No, this is not a story about the Doctor and the Tardis, but now that I have your attention, read on! Have you ever wondered how you became a citizen before the 1871 Act  for the Naturalization of Aliens within the Colony of Western Australia? The answer is you got your very own Act of Parliament! Between 1841 and 1871, thirty-nine  people in WA had acts of parliament granting them citizenship. The first was Johann August Ludwig Preiss from Hanover, and the last was Peter Ferrara from Naples in the Kingdom of Italy. In between was Benjamin Franklin Simmons, and there are no Brownie points for guessing his country of origin,  and the Right Reverend Jose Maria Benedict Serra, known to us as Dom Joseph Benedict Serra, one of the co-founders of New Norcia.

The Act of 1871, known as the Naturalization Act, put and end to this interesting footnote in the history of the Colony of Westen Australia.