A former student of a Fairbridge Farm School who gave evidence at the royal commission into child sexual abuse is trying to track down more than 100 "lost children" who could be eligible for compensation.
Ric Hinch is the president of the Old Fairbridgian Society, which is comprised of alumni from the Pinjarra Fairbridge School, where British children were sent under a long-running migration scheme that ended in the 1960s.
Mr Hinch was six when he was sent to Western Australia, along with his two brothers, in the early 1950s.
"There were some good times, they were caused by the kids that were there — they sort of became your family," he said.
"But there were also some really nasty times."
Mr Hinch said he was unable to process some of his experiences at the school, including physical and sexual abuse, until later in his life.
The school was closed in the 1980s.
Push for redress
A number of the school's former students have applied for redress under a state-based compensation scheme for children who suffered abuse in care.
But the Old Fairbridgian Society is facing bureaucratic hurdles as it works through the process of helping claimants apply through the National Redress Scheme.
Last month the Federal Government named Fairbridge Restored Limited as one of six institutions that failed to sign up for the scheme by the June 30 deadline.
British administrators for Fairbridge Restored Limited said the organisation had no funds.
The Prince's Trust – a British charity founded by Prince Charles that had links to the Fairbridge Society, which ran the migration program – said it was working to ensure victims would be compensated under the National Redress Scheme.
Children sent alone
Mr Hinch said he wanted to know what became of about 150 students who attended the school because they might be eligible for compensation.
"Whether or not they were there during the time I was there, I still see them, basically, as part of my family," he said.
"I've got to help them if I can."
He said about 70 children were sent unaccompanied to Fairbridge Pinjarra under the "parents-to-follow" scheme in the 1960s, after the Fairbridge Society's official child migrant scheme had ended.
In many instances the parents never followed.
"There's still some 57 of that group that we haven't been able to locate," Mr Hinch said.
He is also searching for another 90 or so "Fairbridge kids" he has lost track of, as well as about 40 children who were sent back to the UK.
"We wonder what happened to those kids," Mr Hinch said.
