Qualla: Fairbridge Village

Fairbridge Village: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Kingsley Fairbridge wanted to see "little children shedding the bondage of unfortunate circumstances and stretching their legs and minds amid the thousand interests of the farm." It was a noble sentence, and he meant it when he wrote it. On 15 April 1912, he and his wife Ruby arrived in Albany, Western Australia, from England, and by October they had opened the world's first Fairbridge Farm School near Pinjarra. What followed over the next seven decades was far more complicated than Kingsley's founding vision. Between 1913 and 1982, 3,580 children passed through Fairbridge under various British child migration schemes. Some found genuine opportunity. Many were told they were orphans when they were not, separated from families they would never see again, and subjected to conditions that governments on both sides of the world would eventually be forced to apologize for.

Read more: Fairbridge Village on Qualla

Fairbridge Village: An Empire's Unwanted Children

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The child migration schemes that fed Fairbridge were products of an era that believed shipping poor British children to the colonies served everyone's interests: the children escaped urban poverty, the colonies gained future workers and settlers, and the British welfare system sh...

Read more: Fairbridge Village on Qualla

Fairbridge Village: The Reckoning

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1986, the first Australian child migrant approached the British government seeking reparation. The following year, the Child Migrant Trust was established to help former migrants trace their families and seek acknowledgment of what had happened to them. The admissions came slo...

Read more: Fairbridge Village on Qualla

Fairbridge Village: Herbert Baker's Chapel

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Among Fairbridge's 55 heritage-listed buildings, the chapel stands apart. It is the only building in Australia designed by Sir Herbert Baker, the British architect whose other commissions include the Union Buildings in Pretoria and contributions to New Delhi's government quarter ...

Read more: Fairbridge Village on Qualla

Fairbridge Village: A Village Reinvented

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Since 1983, Fairbridge Western Australia Inc. has operated the 30-hectare site as a charitable organization focused on youth programs. The village now houses an independent secondary school, a registered training organization, and facilities for school and community camps. Accomm...

Read more: Fairbridge Village on Qualla