When Theresa Whitfield heard the girls'
dormitory at the abandoned Neerkol Orphanage had burnt down, she felt
relief that verged on sheer delight. The two-storey brick building was a prison of pain during the "10 horrible years" she spent there in the 1950s.
Theresa (nee Gillon) was one of hundreds of thousands of British children who were shipped to Australia and housed in church-run institutions. She was just seven years old when she first set foot on the rural setting of Neerkol outside Rockhampton.
Theresa (nee Gillon) was one of hundreds of thousands of British children who were shipped to Australia and housed in church-run institutions. She was just seven years old when she first set foot on the rural setting of Neerkol outside Rockhampton.