Shortlisted, Queensland Media Awards, Freelance Journalism

A succession of government inquiries dating back to the 1934 McCulloch Report in New South Wales show that over half a million Australians experienced childhood in an orphanage, children’s home, training school, institution or some other form of out-of-home care in environments of excessively cruel and brutal institutionalised violence. Those environments were shrouded in secrecy and complemented by inadequate staffing levels and poor training and organisation for those assigned as state-sponsored caregivers.