Residential institutions run by government and non-government organisations were the standard form of out-of-home care during the first half of the 20th century.
In 2009 an official Australian government apology was made to people who had grown up in the institutional system, including former child migrants to Australia.
The people sometimes called Forgotten Australians are the survivors of government policies that resulted in at least 500,000 children growing up in "out-of-home" care in Australia in the 20th Century.
[2] Other terms for people who spent time in out-of-home care include "homies", "state wards" or "wardies".
[3][9] When a Senate inquiry into child migration to Australia was being conducted in 2000–2001, the recently established Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) made a submission to that inquiry to raise awareness that a third and much larger group of children who had experienced care were being forgotten.
[citation needed] Many of the reasons children were placed in care related to poverty and family breakdown.
[3] Lone mothers and fathers found it difficult to work to support children as there was little affordable childcare available.
[4] Children could be made state wards by being charged with 'being neglected, of no fixed abode, [or] likely to lapse into a life of crime or vice', if authorities considered they came from homes where there was violence or alcohol abuse or if there was no-one to properly take care of them.
[4] Institutions were run by state governments, charities, welfare and religious organisations or private individuals.
[4] Orphanages and children's homes in Australia 'from the 1920s to 1980s were under-resourced, poorly supervised and lacked government scrutiny'.
[19][20] Foster care in Australia began in the 19th century as a form of boarding out to give children in institutions an experience of 'normal' family life.
Foster care placements do not appear to have been made in a coordinated way, but 'with expediency rather than child welfare being a primary consideration'.
However, even those who made positive comments to the 2003–04 Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care reported a 'lack of love, affection and nurturing'.
The Committee received hundreds of graphic and disturbing accounts about the treatment and care experienced by children in out-of-home care ... Their stories outlined a litany of emotional, physical and sexual abuse, and often criminal physical and sexual assault ... neglect, humiliation and deprivation of food, education and healthcare.
[6][27] Forgotten Australians reported to the Senate Inquiry that as adults they had suffered depression, social anxieties, phobias, recurring nightmares, anger, shame, and were fearful and distrustful of others leading to an inability to form and maintain relationships.
[28][29] The most common outcome of a childhood spent in out-of-home care reported to the Senate inquiry was a loss of identity.
Parents were often told their children had been moved to other institutions or had been adopted, or that visiting rights had been withdrawn as punishment for misbehaviour.
[1] In later life, some people discovered letters on government and institution files showing that their parents had tried to make contact, or have them returned home.
Many have carried the trauma of neglect and abuse into their adult lives and relationships but have found it difficult to tell anyone about their experiences, even partners and children.
[33] Over 900 Forgotten Australians and former child migrants were present in the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra to hear the apology.
[36] In 2009, the University of Melbourne apologised for their involvement in the unethical use of orphans as test subjects of experimental medication and drugs.