The Stolen Generations

The records of the Aborigines Protection Board contain only one serious complaint about the treatment of children at the Bomaderry Children’s Home. This occurred in 1934 but there are no details of what actually happened. The board’s minutes in July that year referred merely to ‘statements made by boys who are ex-inmates thereof’.

The board’s vice-chairman and the Chief Inspector of Schools in the Department of Public Instruction, B. C. Harkness, agreed to inspect the home ‘at an early date’ and report back to the board. This he did in November that year. His report has not survived but the board’s minutes record that it decided to: ‘Ask local police to make inspections of Home at irregular intervals and to furnish quarterly reports thereon’.[1] In other words, although no action was recom­mended against the home or any of its officers, there seemed to be enough evidence of some kind of problem to warrant monitoring by the police.