I came from a large family of ten children in Grimsby, Lincolnshire in England. My father worked in a government job. We had a very happy home life - a nice, big home, plenty of places to play. My mother died when I was five; the youngest child was six months old and the eldest was not quite 15. We had large family support [and] were well looked after by the Catholic Church before and after Mum died. The church housed us, schooled and helped feed, clothe. We didn’t go without anything, we didn’t do any housework and then we hit Fairbridge [Farm in Australia], my God.

My father was not a Catholic. With the nuns owning the home and helping out, they had a big say. I think he [also] felt tied down by the children [and] wanted a different lifestyle. It wasn’t long after he retired.

When I was nine I remember going to a lady’s house, a lady he was fond of. It wasn’t long after the four youngest came to Australia. The fifth did come later because he missed the other children. The eldest girl left school, the others were still at boarding school.

I don’t remember being told anything, that he was giving us away. My father got on a train with us to London to Knockholt in Kent. We were assessed there and paperwork would have been finalised. It was a beautiful place, beautiful lawns, but it was nothing like what we were coming out to. No doubt that probably fooled a lot of parents.

We had to wear Fairbridge clothes, a grey suit. I don’t remember being told about getting on a boat and going over [to Australia from] I think Southampton. I just naturally assumed the boat was going to turn round and go back again. That was shattered as the journey went on. I sort of clicked that something else was happening because we had this lady that looked after our party of Fairbridge children. There was about ten [children], all different ages. Being kids we had a good time on the boat but even though I was only ten myself, [because] the youngest [sibling] was five, I felt I needed to look after them.

I had mumps and remember being put in a sick bay and a couple of the sailors brought me some nice fruit. I remember getting off at Port Said or Aden. I remember these little kids swimming in the water. Those poor little children; people would be throwing money to them.

We arrived on the SS Ormond on 10 June 1952. It took us five or six weeks. I remember getting a train all night to come to Molong from Sydney. Oh, it was horrific. It was so cold and kids trying to sleep, there were no beds. I am pretty sure that when we got [to Fairbridge Farm], it was more or less breakfast time and I vaguely remember [wearing] my grey skirt and blazer. We never saw them again by the way. They must have sent them back to send other kids in them.

I remember it was a freezing morning, there was snow on the ground. There was a fireplace but no fire. And there were kids on their hands and knees scrubbing floors. I couldn’t believe my eyes because I had never, ever seen anything like that before. It was awful. Honestly, I will never forget that day I got there. I can still see those kids on their hands and knees and how cold it was.

Because my little brother was only five, he was put in the same cottage as my younger sister and myself. But my other brother, who was about eight, he was put in another which I thought was a bit funny. The cottage mother lived on the premises in a room at the front. There was usually around about 13-14 children in each cottage.

Everything went by a bell. It was so regimental. This was a six o’clock rise, you had to strip your bed off; she was a bit of a fanatic, our cottage mother, for cleanliness. Then you started work on your floors or whatever you were doing, for a full hour. We [had] to scrub our benches and floors and [they] had to be white.

At seven o’clock another bell went and you had to walk down to the dining room where we all had breakfast. If you were primary [school