A medium-sized book in a black hardcover and consisting of 144 pages in 10 chapters.

The fly-leaf has the tile on the front and on the back a full page version of a fine photograph showing seven assorted youngsters over the caption: 'A group of children taken into Dr. Barnardo's care in one day in 1875' beneath which is a bracketed 'Barnardo's Australia'. The title page has the title in large bold italics, and under the author 'edited by Joan Clarke'. The publishers are at the foot, in particularly fine type, and the reverse has the Southwood Press Pty Limited, of Marrickville, NSW as typesetter, printer and binder, listed below the publication year and author's copyright, and above the ISBN and National Library of Australia listing.

The 10 chapters have informative titles indicating a comprehensive account, and the listing of the many illustrations gives the same impression. The concise foreword by the President of Barnardo's Australia states the years and circumstances of Barnardo children emigration, and introduces their experiences, and outcomes, as related by the thirty previous Barnardo wards. The Introduction, by the author, clarifies his initiation of the book by the writing of his own experience as a Barnardo boy in England who emigrated to Australia during the Depression and grew up there with many friends who had done the same, and had continued to share experiences. He has gathered twenty nine of these friends, and by appropriately collating these with his own account under each of the chapter headings, presents, in essence, the development of Barnardo's Australia. The introduction adds a short biography of Barnardo, and history of Barnardo's, including the emigration of many thousands of children to Canada from 1882 onwards. The emigrations to Australia were from 1921 to 1965.

Comment: A promising and challenging account.

Life before Barnardo's From his own experience the author writes of the sadness of incomplete memories of childhood caused by illegitimacy followed by removal from home and parenthood, and from the experiences of his friends, the many other routes to Barnardo's.

Similarly, Foster Homes relates the experiences of a number of contributors, and the author's, who had experienced boarding out by Barnardo's before coming to Australia. Generally a successful form of childcare in Barnardo's experience, it was often at the expense of splitting up families of brothers and sisters, and of disrupting a childhood when it failed, or when recalled to Barnardo's.

Barnardo's English Homes From the Home in Stepney Causeway, which the author found forbidding in the 1920s, to the Barkingside Village Home, experienced variously by a number of his girl colleagues, and the William Baker Technical School and Boys Garden City, experienced at variable levels of comfort and happiness, are here related.

Off to Australia This chapter starts with the reminder that all of the contributors, and thousands of other children went from disrupted backgrounds to an unknown future in Australia. The immense journey is recorded in a number of personal accounts. In 1923 Barnardo's obtained their first Home in Australia

Training for the work place and First Jobs These chapters contain the records of training while in Barnardo's own accomodation for would-be landworkers initially, and domestic and other labour later. Although rigorous, sometimes harsh, and occsionally bad, with severe corporal punishement, employability as youngsters was reached.

Successes and Failures An important chapter contributed by those from Barnardo's who made clear their ambition to achieve independency, and mostly succeeded.

Words of Praise and Criticism This section contains criticisms of what the author terms the Barnardo Scheme which range from sheer unhappines within it to episodes of unfair physical or mental treatment, neglect, exploitation, and lack of oportunity, to indignities, lack of provision and opportunity, particularly of education. For some of the author's friends, the criticisms were too painful to communicate in this collation.

Search for Origins Following a succinct explanation of the longstanding Barnardo policy of maintaining the privacy of inmates' dossiers, and their relatively recent release of information, the author touches on the both advantageous and devastatingly disadvantageous effects of releasing such information, before moving to the current openness in the care of children.

Barnardo's Today Following the changes and expansion in Barnardo's world-wide this chapter concentrates on the role of Barnardo's Australia in the 'Search for Origins' and 'release of information' that brought together so many who had begun their lives as Barnardo immigrants to Australia, and were able to participate in this competent collation of their experience and provide a valuable historical contribution in a fine book.

At the end of the book Notes on Contributors provides a summary pragraph on each of the 29, in alphabetical order, which is succinc tly informative.

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