The Untold Story
Paul Calleja
Western Australia
Experts on the child migration period differ widely on the number of children sent to Australia. Mr Alan Gill (Orphans of the Empire) claims that 30,000 children were sent between 1912 to the late 1960s. Professor Sherington (Submission No 119- Lost Innocence - Australian Senate Report) claims 6,000 for the same period. There is a similar lack of consensus with the post - war estimates also. Here they range from the UK Health Committee report figures of 7,000 - 10,000 to Dr Barry Coldrys estimates of 3,000 to 3,500 (Submission No 13 - Lost Innocence - Australian Senate Report).
Regardless of which sets of figures one accepts, the number of Maltese children sent to Australia is small compared to the British
Malta sent a total of 310 of her children to Catholic institutions in Australia between 1950 and 1967. Of these 259 were male and 51 were female. The vast majority (303) ended up in Western Australian and 7 in South Australia.
Nevertheless, Maltese children were not so small in number, and their experiences at the institutions not so dissimilar to the British children, that they should be ignored in any child migration investigation or report.
Maltese children constituted approximately 30% of children sent to Catholic institutions in the post war period and 100% between 1958 and 1967 when the scheme closed down.
Catholic institutions taking in the Maltese child migrants were - Castledare (Christian Brothers) Clontarf (Christian Brothers) Bindoon (Christian Brothers) Tardun (Christian Brothers) Nazareth House Bluff Point (Poor Sisters of Nazareth) Saint Joseph's Subiaco (Sisters of Mercy) and Saint Vincent's Subiaco (Sisters of Mercy). The Adelaide institution was Goodwood (Sisters of Mercy).
Only two investigations have been conducted specifically into the Maltese role in the Child migration scheme.
I conducted the first in the early nineties before the British publications and TV documentaries such as Lost Children of the Empire exposed the child migration scandals. My research into Maltese child migration was part of an overall research into Maltese migration to Western Australia, which ended up as a book, Maltese of the Western Third. One chapter is devoted to the Maltese child migrant.
During this research I conducted a number of taped interviews of former child migrants, including one with Joe Bugeja and his sister Angela.
Joe Bugeja was a well-known name in the mid 1950's for reasons Joe would rather forget. He was one of 19 Clontarf boys seriously injured (one was killed) in a horror bus crash. Joe was the most seriously injured, loosing both his legs. World War 11 hero, Douglas Badder, himself a double amputee, made a special trip to Perth to offer encouragement to Joe and other Maltese victims of the bus crash.
Angela Foley, (nee Bugeja) was one of 51 female Maltese child migrants. To the best of my knowledge, she is the only female Maltese child migrant to be given the opportunity to tell her story.
Dr Barry Coldrey, a Christian Brother, historian and a leading authority on child migration issues wrote an unpublished paper on Maltese child migrants shortly after my publication. We exchanged notes when he was putting together his book The Scheme, a comprehensive report on the Catholic child migration scheme that was extensively referred to in the Senate inquiry.
Dr Barry York conducted a number of taped interviews with former Maltese child migrants. The recorded interviews are now housed in the National library.
Despite these reminders of Maltese children being participants in the child migration schemes, former Maltese child migrants continued to be forgotten.
Seven Maltese were in child migrant institutions in South Australia yet reference to them was omitted from a plaque, recently unveiled at the South Australian migration museum. It commemorates British child migrants but Maltese child migrants are not mentioned.
Former Western Australian Premier, Charles Court, speaking on talk back radio about the child migration scheme in Western Australia, had to be informed by former Maltese child migrant, Alf Wettenger, that Maltese were part of the scheme. He did not know.
But some recent projects have begun to remind the public of the existence of former Maltese migrants.
C-BERS (Christian Brothers Ex-Residents and Students Services) has recently completed ten oral histories and transcripts with former Maltese child migrants. Housed in the State Library of Western Australia, they are a valuable contribution to the growing documentation of this sorry chapter in Maltese migration.
But many more former child migrants want and need to tell their story. Less than twenty of the 310 former Maltese child migrants have had their story officially recorded.
This sad chapter in Maltese history will not be closed until all stories are told.
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