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C-BERSS EX-PRESS
June 1998
Issue 3, Vol 1
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All Newsletters : June 1998 : Focus on Castledare
Focus on Castledare
 It's 60 years since, in 1938, Castledare took its first intake of 11 young child migrants from Britain. Another 31 boys arrived the following year.
The war came and the ships that had brought young migrants from halfway across the world no longer docked in Fremantle Harbour. It would be another eight years before, in 1947, the child migration scheme resumed. In August of that year, the Asturias brought 150 migrant children to Western Australia - 28 of them went to Castledare.
Another five years passed before, in 1952, Eric Hood (who was only seven years old at the time) set off on his long journey to foreign shores and a new home in Australia called Castledare.
Another five years on and by 1957 the practice of child migration was being phased out. Brendan McCloat had arrived in January of the same year on board the Strathnaver. He was nine years old at the time he and 13 other Irish boys from Belfast were assigned to their destination -- Castledare.
By the time Brendan arrived, Eric had lived at Castledare for five years. He was now 12 -- three years Brendan's senior.
There were 93 residents at Castledare in 1957 and about a quarter of them were child migrants.
Both Eric and Brendan have largely positive memories of their time at Castledare as they share their stories with CBERS Counsellor, Valma Granich.
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