After arriving in Australia from the United Kingdom with the promise of a better life, the children found conditions at the institution were primitive.

At the hands of callus staff members many of them were forced to endure physical, sexual and psychological abuse.

The children were viewed as a labour force and, as such, many were made to work in the dairy and undertake other chores in between their school work.

Author David Hill was sent to Fairbridge Farm in 1959 when his mother, a poor single parent living in England, reluctantly felt she had no choice but to surrender her sons.

She believed they would be  given a sound education and a better life, but sadly this was not the case.

While Mr Hill and his brothers were able to be reunited with their mother, many of the children at Fairbridge were not as lucky.

However, Mr Hill never forgot the sad stories he had heard over the years about life at Fairbridge.

It was these stories which prompted him to write The Forgotten Children: Fairbridge Farm School and its Betrayal of Britain’s Child Migrants to Australia. 

In 2007 Mr Hill came to the Central West, determine to launch his book in Molong, but much to his surprise he wasn’t welcome there. 

For many people the pain of Fairbridge was still too raw.

Others simply refused to acknowledge that such atrocities had occurred.

A $24 million compensation settlement was awarded to the former residents of Fairbridge in the Supreme Court in June, finally vindicating the terrible accounts of their childhoods.

It seems only fitting for Mr Hill to return to Molong now and finally close this despicable chapter in Australia’s history.