Big Brother Movement that brought 15,000 boys to Australia marks a century
Identical twins Alistair and Alex Macdonald were just 16 when they arrived at an isolated farm in southern New South Wales in 1955, a world away from the grey streets of Edinburgh.
They had left Scotland for Australia as part of the Big Brother Movement, a government-backed scheme aimed to help populate and develop a young Australian nation.
"When we were uncouth youth looking for our future," Alex laughed.
Between 1925 and 1982, in one of the biggest immigration schemes in the nation's history, 15,000 boys — some as young as 14 — came to Australia from the United Kingdom.
Eager for adventure and opportunity, they all migrated voluntarily.
Known as Little Brothers, they were in the care of adult supervisors, or Big Brothers.
Many, like the Macdonald brothers, dreamed of becoming farmers.
Earlier this year the twins, now 86, returned to the farm at Blighty where 70 years ago their hopes of a better life in Australia first took shape.
But life back then was tough.
"Work, work, work, all the time, but that was how it was," Alistair recalled, stepping carefully across a paddock strewn with broken concrete and rusted relics.
Their stories echo the experience of many boys whose lives were changed by the Big Brother Movement.
Known now as BBM, the organisation is celebrating its centenary this year with reunions in most states of Australia.
The thinning ranks of men once known as Little Brothers have been gathering to reminisce.
"It's lovely to honour the old men now. Just to see their faces and for them to connect with other people. Some people haven't seen each other for years," BBM CEO Suellen McCaffrey said.
The NSW reunion was held at Calmsley Hill, near Parramatta, the former training farm where new arrivals had a basic course in farming before being assigned to rural properties.
Among those in attendance was 93-year-old Jim Reardon, who arrived from Liverpool in 1949.
He recalled the initial years as "torrid".
"I used to live in little tin hut, hot in the summer, freezing in the winter. Cutting down trees, it was hard graft," Mr Reardon said.
By the late 1950s, new Big Brother arrivals had shifted. They were typically older, in their 20s, and seeking city work rather than farming.
The sponsorship scheme ended following changes to the migration rules in 1983.
Australian immigration policy became more multicultural and the scheme was seen to favour only Britons.
The training farm in western Sydney was sold, and the proceeds reinvested, and the organisation evolved into BBM Youth Support.
It sponsors young Australians to travel overseas to further their careers, many focused on rural development.
The Big Brother scheme had a profound role in the development of the Australian nation.
The organisation estimates there are now almost 100,000 descendants of the Little Brothers.
"The Big Brother Movement allowed my father and my family so many opportunities. We are the Australian story," said Nick Bleasdale, who attended the Sydney reunion.
"My father [who] passed away not long ago, ended up as the mayor of Blacktown. He would always tell me my whole life he was a Little Brother and for that as a family we are forever grateful."
As are the Macdonalds.
Their three siblings and parents followed them, migrating to Australia to live out the rest of their lives.
"We're lucky, aren't we? We're in the lucky country, so Aussie has been pretty lucky to us," added Alex.
Watch ABC TV's Landline at 12:30pm AEST on Sunday or stream anytime on ABC iview.
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