Eight years after former child migrant and Fairbridge Farm resident David Hill published his book on the harsh treatment and abuse meted out to many of the children who were shipped to the farm settlement near Molong, many now stand to receive substantial compensation for their pain and suffering.

It is not the end of the sorry saga of these child migrants by any means, many will carry memories of their torment to the grave, but it is a start, with formal recognition of what they endured and now the compensation they deserve.

That and apologies from the governments and the institution which put them in harm’s way, will go some way to healing the wounds many still carry.

Fairbridge Farm is not the only example of good intentions which went horribly wrong, but it is one of the worst.

Notorious for the Spartan life and brutality inflicted on many young children, the refusal of the UK-based Fairbridge Trust and state and federal governments to acknowledge what went on for over 30 years is almost as appalling as the behaviour of some of those charged with caring for these vulnerable children.

The Fairbridge Trust, which shipped children as young as four from England to this rural setting, and the governments which sanctioned its actions, are part of a broader legacy which Australia is still wrestling with.

Like the Stolen Generations of Aboriginal children who were removed from their families and given rudimentary education before being placed in domestic jobs, the child migrants of Fairbridge were the product of a time when social intervention was uncompromising and the actions of governments and their agents above scrutiny or reproach.

To reflect on the operations of Fairbridge Farm across four decades is disturbing enough but it is the steadfast refusal of the Fairbridge Foundation and governments in Australia to take responsibility in the 21st century for institutional cruelty of Dickensian proportions is sickening.

It is a clarion call to hold governments and institutions to account whenever they claim to act for the public good but shroud their actions in secrecy and denial.