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Record #5415
Name :
: David HILL (1946 - )


Father
:
Mother
:
BMD and other details
Date of Birth
: 20 Jun 1946

Marriage (1)
:
Marriage (2)
:

Date of Death
:
Abode (1) : Place of BirthEngland
Abode (2) : Place of Death / Burial
Sailing Information
Date of Arrival
: May 1959
Country
: Australia

Ship
: Strathaird

Placement Family
:
Homes / Agencys
Institution (GB)
:

Agency
: Fairbridge Homes
NotesIn 1959 David Hill's mother, Kathleen, a poverty-stricken single mother who tried to raise four boys on a domestic servant's income, reluctantly decided to send her three sons, Malcolm, Richard and David, to Fairbridge Farm School in New South Wales where, she was led to believe, they would have a good education and a better life.

Hill and his twin brother, Richard, were the last of Kathleen Hill's five boys. The twins were born in 1946. They never knew for sure the identity of their father and were living in poverty with their mum and half-brother Dudley on a council estate outside Eastbourne when two "ladies from the Fairbridge Society" came calling one day in 1959.

Kathleen decided to make the sacrifice of surrendering her boys to a better future and soon the trio was on the P&O luxury liner Strathaird bound for Pyrmont's pier 13.

"Unlike a lot of the other children, I'm not the victim," Hill says. "I'm like a kid who went to a tough boarding school. Because I came from a mum and went home to a mum. I'm not typical of Fairbridge. Fairbridge was a tough school and I did it bloody hard. ..."

David was deemed bright enough to attend Orange High School during his time in Molong; however, these few boys were refused school uniforms.

"Our grey coats stood out like sore thumbs amid the black-and-gold uniforms at Orange High," he said.

We had short pants and all the other boys had long trousers. We felt like second-class citizens.

I had great mates and great adventures at Molong but it was a nearly self-sufficient farm run on child slave-labour and we worked very hard.

There was nothing like a family structure and there was no love or affection. Some of the cottage mothers were brutally sadistic."

Getting up at 3 a.m. to milk cows or look after pigs was, he recalled, a very tough life, for the dairy work ended at 7 p.m. "and all the day you had only had two slices of bread to eat."

David's mother arrived in Australia two years later and in late 1961 her boys left Molong to join her in Sydney. "Mum was horrified by Fairbridge. She lived until the 1980s, long enough to see her boys do good. And I'm really grateful for that."

David graduated from the University of Sydney with an economics degree in 1968, one of the few Fairbridge children to achieve tertiary qualifications.

During his remarkable career, David Hill has been Chairman, then Managing Director of the ABC, Chairman of the Australian Football Association, Chief Executive and Director of the State Rail Authority NSW and Chairman of Sydney Water Coporation and Chairman of CREATE - a national organisation responsible for representing the interests of young people and children in institutional care. He is the author of two books, the bestselling THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN (Random House, 2007), and 1788, the story of the migration of convicts to Australia.

The Forgotten Children, a semi-autobiographical book, came about because Hill visited Molong in 2005 to undertake a "dig" as a skills test, having just completed a diploma of classical archeology at the University of Sydney. The place was in ruins so he and others formed the Fairbridge Heritage Association. He has recorded the oral histories of about 60 former residents. A television documentary has been produced and an exhibition is in the wings.

At 52, David Hill married his long-time girlfriend, Stergitsa Zamagias, 28. She had been his personal assistant at the ABC. Their son was born three years later. He and his family reside in Sydney, Australia. 
ContributorsCreated : 2009-03-02 16:12:33 / From original database

Additional Contributions from : Pinjarra1929

Last Updated : 2022-01-30 19:37:57 /

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Readers Comments30.01.22 Pinjarra1929 :
Hi would like to ask you about things please. Reading your book Forgotten children. My maternal grandad was at Pinjarra Fairbridge 1929 to 37. I need advice on research on why he was sent. His situation in uk.

Surnames starting with:   A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  30 Entries        
Page: [1] 2 3 72 Entries        
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
12326 ANSTRUTHER, James1930ENG,     Aug 1938 : Strathaird AUS Christian Brothers  
12293 APPOLONIN, William1931ENG,     Aug 1938 : Strathaird AUS Christian Brothers  
27309 BLACKWELL, Keith Michael1932ENG,     Jun 1939 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
27310 BLACKWELL, Maurice1927ENG,     Jun 1939 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
27311 BRIDGES, Betty Marion Russell1927ENG,     Jun 1939 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
27312 BRIDGES, Charles Alwyn Russell1929ENG,     Jun 1939 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
12312 BURT, Frederick William1930ENG,     Aug 1938 : Strathaird AUS Christian Brothers  
25308 CLEMENTS, Ernest William1927ENG, LND, Woolwich Aug 1938 : Strathaird AUS Christian Brothers  
27313 COLLING, June1932ENG,     Jun 1939 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
27314 COLLING, Margaret1929ENG, DUR, Houghton le Spring Jun 1939 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
12314 CONNORS, John1928ENG,     Aug 1938 : Strathaird AUS Christian Brothers  
25309 COSTICK, Patrick James1927ENG, SOM, Williton, Luxborough Aug 1938 : Strathaird AUS Christian Brothers  
27315 DIXON, Sheila Margaret1926ENG, DUR, Chester-le-Street Jun 1939 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
12294 DOWNING, Kenneth D1925ENG,     Aug 1938 : Strathaird AUS Christian Brothers  
5510 ELLIMAN, Christopher1948ENG, YKS, Cleveland Dec 1959 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
5509 ELLIMAN, Michael1951ENG, YKS, Cleveland Dec 1959 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
27317 FOLEY, Patrick James1928ENG, HAM, Farnham, Aldershot Jun 1939 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
27316 FOLEY, Victor1925IRL, ANT, Belfast Jun 1939 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
12315 FRENCH, John J1929ENG,     Aug 1938 : Strathaird AUS Christian Brothers  
9261 GRIGSON, Peter1927ENG, LND, Pancras Aug 1938 : Strathaird AUS Christian Brothers  
12295 HANDLEY, Richard1929ENG,     Aug 1938 : Strathaird AUS Christian Brothers  
9257 HANNIGAN, Michael1929ENG,     Aug 1938 : Strathaird AUS Christian Brothers  
12303 HAYDON, Raymond Thomas1926ENG,     Aug 1938 : Strathaird AUS Christian Brothers  
12320 HEATON, Anthony1927ENG,     Aug 1938 : Strathaird AUS Christian Brothers  
27332 HENDERSON, Margaret Rattray1929 Jun 1939 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
27318 HENNIGHAN, Richard1929ENG,     Jun 1939 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
12296 HIGHCOCK, Ivor1930ENG,     Aug 1938 : Strathaird AUS Christian Brothers  
5415 HILL, David1946ENG,     May 1959 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
5417 HILL, Dudley1944ENG,     May 1959 : Strathaird AUS Fairbridge Homes  
12316 HILL, John Henry1929ENG,     Aug 1938 : Strathaird AUS Christian Brothers  
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
Page: [1] 2 3 72 Entries        
Surnames starting with:   A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  30 Entries