Junior School: 20th Century Australia

How are human rights defined in Australia?

Human rights recognise the inherent value of each person, regardless of background, where we live, what we look like, what we think or what we believe. They are based on principles of dignity, equality and mutual respect, which are shared across cultures, religions and philosophies.

1920s to 1980s: 500,000 children in institutions

In the 1920s residential institutions were still viewed by authorities as appropriate places in which to bring up children.

As a result, about 500,000 children from 1920 to 1980 were committed to spend part or all of their childhood ‘inside’. The majority of these children were not orphans. Many had one or both parents alive, or had other living relatives. How many institutions there were will probably never be known. There were at least 800.

They varied from large institutions holding several hundred children to a household where maybe a dozen children were cared for by a couple of carers, perhaps a widow and an adult daughter.

These institutions were run by churches and charities, state governments, other philanthropic organisations or private individuals.

Some were run on the ‘cottage system’, where children lived in smaller groups looked after by ‘cottage parents’ within the grounds of the institution.

For some children, the institution was where they spent all their childhood. For others it was a part of their childhood.

How children were committed to institutional ‘care’

The reasons for children being placed in institutions from the 1920s to 1980s were many and varied:

• families who had to give up their children due to poverty
• family breakdown caused by factors such as domestic violence, alcoholism, illness, the trauma of war or the lack of social support networks
• single parent families, created through war, death, desertion, prison and divorce, who without adequate government support had to give up their children
• children of unmarried mothers, at a time when the social and economic pressures for these women to relinquish their babies was enormous
• children of parents judged as unfit by state authorities, and with no other guardian the state considered suitable, these children were then declared ‘wards of the state’
• children who were considered to be ‘exposed to moral danger’
• children who were runaways or considered ‘out of control’
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, many of whom had been removed from their families as part of the assimilation policies of the time
• British and Maltese children brought to Australian institutions under child migration schemes, some were sent from institutions in those countries, but others were sent by their families with the promise of a ‘better life’
• children placed in ‘care’ voluntarily by their families – the law required families to contribute money towards their children’s upkeep.

A small number of families were able to bring their children home again. But once a child was in the system, it was often difficult or impossible for families to negotiate their return.

The 20th century was dominated by significant events that defined the modern era: the sixth mass extinction, Spanish flu pandemic, World War I and World War II, nuclear weapons, nuclear power and space exploration, nationalism and decolonization, the Cold War and post-Cold War conflicts, and technological advances.

In the early years of the 20 th century, Australia offered the following working conditions...

• A guaranteed basic wage
• An eight-hour day (with a half-day on Saturday)
• A pension if he lived to 65 or over
• Assistance should he be disabled or unable to work before turning 65 years old

HOWEVER: 

• Many factory workers worked in unsafe and unhealthy conditions
• Some  factories were poorly ventilated, hot in summer and cold and damp in winter
• There were no safety regulations for the people employed to work on poorly maintained machinery
• Injuries were common
• Many factories were located in working-class areas and often polluted to air and waterways with chemicals and other waste 
• Workers  were not paid overtime
• Workers had no protection in times of short-term illness (no sick-leave from their employer)
• No unemployed benefits

Edward Koiki Mabo (né Sambo; c. 29 June 1936 – 21 January 1992) was an Indigenous Australian man from the Torres Strait Islands known for his role in campaigning for Indigenous land rights and in a landmark decision of the High Court of Australia that overturned the legal doctrine of terra nullius ("nobody's land") that characterised Australian law with regard to land and title, and officially recognised the rights of Aboriginal Australians to own and use the land on which their families had lived for millennia.

Australia’s modern culture has been shaped by a number of factors, including Americanization, immigration, ancient heritage, and climate. With much of the population living close to the coast, a strong beach culture dominates society