Hi Leoj,

If we are going to get onto the 'Stolen Generation' story, it might help to analyse actual cases.

When my wife and I analysed the School Records from her home community, we pulled out all the names of kids who had, usually for a short time, been put into care of some sort, almost always to a home for boys or girls. Since we knew most of those put into care, and their family situations, it wasn't difficult to understand the whys and wherefores:

* between 1880 and 1960, forty women died, usually in childbirth, leaving 140 school-age kids motherless; since fathers had to go out to do rural work, the community had to find ways to support those children, which seemed to happen fairly effectively up until about the 1940s; then it broke down;

* a handful of fathers died, and the mothers re-married; no surprise, their teenage daughters were sent to the Fullarton Girls' Home;

* at least one single mother died, leaving a child orphaned, and sent off to Colebrook in 1944. She would be the only child that we couldn't place; another girl was orphaned in 1934 at about six, sent to the Fullarton Girls' Home; she returned and married an Aboriginal partner, like most did who had been taken into care;

* in at least one case, the mother had died, the father had re-married, but the new wife refused to look after someone else's brats, so they were sent off for six months, until their grandfather could retire and take care of them.

* without birth control, women had large families, up to eighteen kids (a friend has just passed away who was one of eighteen); fathers, as rural labourers, earned very little. So destitution (and sheer break-down of the mothers) was common, but often just for a short time until the parents could get themselves together again; then the kids were all brought back.

* like in any community, a few bad kids were sent off to the reformatory, returned, sent off again, returned, etc.

Hopefully, this helps.

Joe

Hi Steele,

" .... can you at least accept the three girls referred to in the newspaper alert were Molly and her cousins or not?"

Sure. But getting hold of the School Roll and checking, would clinch it, one way or the other, don't you think ?

After all, why didn't the West Australian follow up this story ? is it possible that they were found, brought back and that was that ? So, ho hum, no more story.

The School Roll would settle the issue pretty conclusively. End of angst.

Joe

@Loudmouth, Thursday, 9 March 2017 11:59:02 AM

Yes it certainly does help to get down to cases and I thank you for the detail.

Dear Loudmouth,

You wrote;

“ I'm assuming that they weren't, that 'our' girls were the ones who ran away from Moore River between the 4th and, say, the 9th of August 1931.”

Well no. The book tells us they said they left the day after arrival. The letter was written on the 4th. The newspaper report saying they had escaped a week ago was on the 11th which fits the time sequence.

Some of your earlier quotes;

“But was there a single element of truth in it ?”
“So, sorry, Paul, there appears to be not a skerrick of evidence supporting the Story.”
“But what we can say (provisionally, until evidence is found) is that it didn't happen.”
“No, I don't think, on the evidence, that the Rabbit-Proof Fence story happened.”
“So how would you consider a story which actually CAN'T establish that an act took place, ever, because it is not based on any actual evidence ? “
“I'll suspend my belief until some of it is made available, if any of it exists AND actually relates to the 'escape' and not to the taking into care of the girls.”
“Windschuttle wrote of 'documentation' - my bet is that none of it relates to any flight, only to the journey down by boat”
“So what have we got ? A story, with no independent back-up, except some mysterious 'documentation' relating to the bringing of the girls from the Pilbara down to Moore River Institution. Nothing which can actually verify the story.”

Hopefully we have now moved past them.

So I will ask the question again;

Has it now been shown to your satisfaction that the three girls did escape together from Moore River, head north-east in the direction of the rabbit-proof fence and home rather than west toward the 'bright lights of Fremantle' as you implied, were not recorded as being captured within the first week, shown to be avoiding human habitations and to have caught and eaten game meat?

If so will this then allow you, as agreed, to turn aside from ever again labeling this as a 'myth'

Hi Steele,

Ah, yes, but did they get very far past New Norcia before they were brought back to Moore River ? I'll wait until someone gets hold of either the School Roll and/or - since you will say that there was no time for them to get enrolled - correspondence between Mr Neal, the Superintendent, and Mr Neville about it all, i.e. the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. No rush.

Hi Leoj,

It was also common practice at Missions and government stations in the South, for children to be housed in small dormitories while they were at school during the week, so that their parents could both go out and work at neighbouring farms.

In this way, the kids could get an education, and get properly fed and clothed, while their parents were free to work. This seemed to be the practice for many years at Koonibba, Pt McLeay (until 1918), and at Gerard on the Murray River (from about 1952 to 1961).

Many people have confused this with 'taking the children away' but clearly it was a win-win situation, for both children and parents. Of course, they were all reunited on Friday nights for the weekend.

At Gerard, where we lived for a few years, but before we got there, parents had gone out on the fruit blocks during the week while the Missionaries ran the dormitory and the kids went to school. If the parents worked further away, sometimes the Missionaries would look after the kids over the weekends.

Cheers,

Joe

Dear Loudmouth,

Why the obfuscation?

The question made no reference to further travels, nor recapture, nor committing you to anything else.

In fact it was very simple and I will ask it again - Has it now been shown to your satisfaction that the three girls did escape together from Moore River, head north-east in the direction of the rabbit-proof fence and home rather than west toward the 'bright lights of Fremantle' as you implied, were not recorded as being captured within the first week, shown to be avoiding human habitations and to have caught and eaten game meat?

Yes or no? If no what part have you now decided to object to?