The Dreadnought Scheme

In 1903, the new Commonwealth of Australia agreed to pay £200,000 per year towards the expenses of the Imperial Squadron in the Pacific, but had no special naval vessels of its own. When in 1909 Germany’s aggressive naval building program threatened Britain’s naval supremacy, the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Sir Allen Taylor, convened a meeting in the Sydney Town Hall to establish a fund to purchase a Dreadnought (battleship) for presentation to Great Britain.

The gathering was held in a mood of wild enthusiasm, and after a series of rousing speeches by leading politicians, the following resolutions were ‘carried unanimously’:

1. That in the opinion of this meeting of citizens glorying in the traditions of the British race, of which they are a part, the time has arrived for the Commonwealth to take an active share in the naval defence of the Empire;
2. That in view of the expressed determination of Britain’s rivals to challenge her naval supremacy, Australia should present a Dreadnought to the British Navy as an immediate expression of her invincible resolve to stand by the Mother country and take her place in the Empire’s firing line;
3. … a fund be now opened to be called the Lord Mayor’s Fund to which contributions towards the cost of a Dreadnought can be paid.

Over the ensuing year some £90,000 was subscribed from towns, shires, organisations and individuals throughout New South Wales. Over half the fund was subscribed by five large donors. However, by the middle of the year, the Deakin Government had decided to establish an Australian navy and the proposal to present Britain with a battleship seemed unnecessary. However, imperial enthusiasm remained strong.

The question arose what to do with the subscriptions, and some were returned to identified donors who wished for their money back. Most did not, and the Dreadnought Trust was established to dispose of the remainder, some £80,000. After discussion, it was agreed with widespread public support to donate around half to the Government towards the establishment of a naval college at Jervis Bay to train young Australians for the new navy; and the other half was placed in a fund to bring young men from British cities to be trained as rural workers on New South Wales farms.

A suitable venue for the boys’ training was found near Pitt Town (Windsor) in the Hawkesbury River area, about twenty miles from Sydney, a 2 500 acre farm established by the New South Wales Government in 1893 to train city boys to be useful farmers – not with conspicuous success, since relatively few offered to be trained. The farm was called ‘Scheyville’ after the Director of Labour in NSW, W F Schey.

During the latter months of 1910, the Trustees of the Dreadnought Fund entered into an agreement with the NSW Government to bring out British boys between the ages of 16 and 19 ‘of good character and physique at a rate of about twenty every fortnight and to pay the Government £5 for each of the lads sent to the training farm’. The first ‘Dreadnought boys’ – twelve in number – arrived on 21 April 1911 and were followed by 27 others on 15 June. Overall, by February 1915, 2 557 boys had arrived, and when the last group arrived in September 1939, the total number of Dreadnought boys brought to the state had reached 5 595.

Three years after World War I, the Dreadnought Trust recommenced its activities. Young men were again selected by Commonwealth Immigration officers in London from among those offering, recommended by county colonization societies and unemployment bureaux. Australia also advertised vigorously for young migrants. The young men were granted assisted passages to Australia. On arrival they were to receive a small amount of pocket money – not wages – while they trained, either at Scheyville for two to three months, or, for a select few, a twelve months course at one of the state agricultural colleges. At these, general farming was pursued in addition to some particular branch of agriculture suited to the locality: at Glen Innes in the New England tablelands, pastoral pursuits; at Wollongbar in the Richmond River district, dairy farming; at Grafton near the Clarence River, sub-tropical fruit culture; and at Cowra in the mid-west, sheep breeding and plant cultivation.

At Scheyville the training was severely practical and the regimen sparse. It was intended to approximate the standard of living the young men might expect to enjoy during their first years of employment. On completing the course to the satisfaction of the manager they were drafted to their first job and granted a £2 good conduct bonus. Wages in their first situation were 15/- to £2 per week with board and lodging. Thereafter, their welfare was supervised by the New Settlers League – from 1921 to 1930; and afterwards, by the British Settlers Welfare Committee. The latter body is considered to have been more effective than the former. Each employed travelling welfare officers to visit the boys on the farms and check their progress, treatment, prospects and conduct.

In 1923, the New South Wales Government introduced the Juvenile Migrants Apprenticeship Act for the care and control of juvenile migrants, but its provisions were draconian and it lasted only two years. Neither employers nor the young men were satisfied. Many absconded from their employment. The Act was repealed in 1926 and replaced by another which gave the Minister control of the training and of supervision during employment, but only until the age of eighteen. Employers were expected to notify the department before sacking a young man, and the young men were expected to inform the Minister after they changed their employment.

On paper all these arrangements seemed reasonable and many Dreadnought boys found satisfaction in their new lives, but there were serious problems for the majority. They were city boys being trained as farm labourers, and existing as strangers in a strange land. They were young and immature, scattered over vast distances, exploitable and exploited. They suffered loneliness, homesickness, ‘Pommy bashing’ and culture shock. Many returned – over the years – to Great Britain, especially during the Depression when some faced unemployment without the support networks taken for granted by long-standing residents. There were some widely-publicised suicides among the boys and deaths from illness and accidents. It was a tough apprenticeship.

The training received at Scheyville was basic, conditions were primitive and staff were semi-literate, usually veterans of World War I who could not obtain better positions anywhere else. Over the years – for those Dreadnought boys who stayed – conditions improved and they could profit from the buoyant years of the 1950s and 1960s.

When one considers the numbers of young men who came to Australia under the Dreadnought Scheme – over 5 000 – the number and coverage of the files is limited. However, it is possible to gain a clear understanding of the genesis of the scheme, its implementation and its problems. There are numerous lists, some newspaper cuttings, some photos and overall, material of interest to genealogists in this section.

YMCA youth migration

The YMCA is a non-sectarian, non-political Christian lay movement whose object is to develop high standards of Christian character through group activities and citizenship training. It was founded in 1844 in London when twelve young men led by George Williams, a drapery store employee, established a club for ‘the improvement of the spiritual condition of young men in the drapery and other trades’. The association grew rapidly especially in the United States and it is now a massive worldwide movement with a presence in most countries. Its headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland.

Gold-rush immigrants brought the YMCA to Australia during the 1850s. The YMCA’s programs include sports and physical training, formal and informal education, camping and citizenship activities. Its branches maintain an international range of youth hostels.

YMCA involvement in youth migration to Australia was peripheral to its many other activities. However, some young people came to Australia under its auspices both during the 1920s and after World War II.

The records held by the National Archives cover reasonably fully the YMCA’s part in bringing some young people to Australia, principally during the 1920s. The material concerns policy in the main and is of little interest to genealogists.

Youth migration to South Australia

South Australia was the first state to initiate Government guardianship of juvenile immigrants, the system being inaugurated under the Immigration Acts of 1901 and 1913. This plan was cut short by the outbreak of war but in 1922 the Premier, Sir Henry Barwell, revived the movement. His aim was to bring 6 000 teenagers to South Australia to fill the places of the men who were killed during World War I. The first parties were known as ‘Barwell boys’. In 1923, an Immigration Act dealing with farm and domestic apprentices was passed. Under this Act, the Commissioner of Crown Lands and Immigration was appointed the legal guardian of each boy or girl immigrant who made a written declaration of their wish to come under his control. Young men from fifteen to eighteen and young women from eighteen to twenty-one were eligible; the period of Government control was three years.

As was usual with these pioneer immigration schemes, results were patchy, and controversy forced the abandonment of this phase of immigration to South Australia in 1925. A modified scheme was put into operation in 1927, under an amendment to the 1923 Act. Conditions of apprenticeship were relaxed, a greater portion, approximately one half of the total wages was paid direct to the farm apprentice and the number of boys nominated was reduced while each was allotted to a Big Brother. This system worked satisfactorily. By the end of 1928, 1 557 British youths had entered South Australia under the scheme.

There is less archival material available than the numbers who came under the scheme might suggest there should be. There is some interest for family historians among the documents in the files.

Youth migration to Tasmania

Youth migration to Queensland

Youth migration to Western Australia

Boy Scout youth migration

In 1927, the Victorian Branch of the Boy Scout Association lodged nominations for assisted passages for selected boy scouts from the United Kingdom aged fifteen to nineteen years old for farm work in the state. The branch accepted responsibility for their placement in employment and after-care. Until 1930 when assisted migration ceased some 200 young men had been introduced.

In many ways, the Boy Scout Association was duplicating the work managed by the Victorian Branch of the Big Brother Movement. However, in the late 1930s the latter got into financial difficulties and in 1941 the Victorian Branch of the Big Brother Movement was dissolved and its remaining funds and assets were handed over to the scouts. In the 1950s, there was again Boy Scout Association interest in sponsoring youth migration from Britain and a small number of young people were assisted to settle in Australia.

The one or two files here reflect the brief passing interest of the Boy Scout Association in youth migration.

Young Australia League youth migration

The Young Australia League was not concerned primarily with child or youth migration. However, during the 1920s the League sponsored 192 young British men to Western Australia on lines similar to that of the Big Brother Movement in the eastern states. The Young Australia League was established in 1905 by a dynamic and controversial businessman, J J Simons, who was born in Clare, South Australia in 1882 but moved to Fremantle in his teens. The League was intended to promote ‘education through travel’. It developed rapidly as a (mainly) middle-class youth movement – patriotic, non-sectarian, non-political. Girls were admitted, but the main focus was on young men’s activities. The League promoted interstate and overseas travel, and acted as a literary and debating society. Theatricals and other social activities were encouraged.

Simons himself had a brief and stormy political career as Labor member for East Perth in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly during the 1920s, but after his defeat turned to journalism and as part of a business syndicate acquired the Sunday Times (Perth) of which he was Managing Director. Other newspapers were purchased and Simons developed a newspaper chain in the state. Meanwhile his Young Australia League peaked with 50 000 members before World War II. Simons died in 1948.

The Young Australia League arranged many and varied activities and youth migration was important to the League only during the later 1920s. The files displayed here reflect these priorities and their main focus is on policy and financial concerns.

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