Farm boys return to Riverview

Former residents of the Riverview Training Farm for Boys Robert Toreaux, Cliff Muir and Fred Carter.

Rob Williams

PAINFUL as the memories are, seeing friends from the Riverview Training Farm for Boys 40 or 50 years after leaving the institution is an emotional time.

Cliff Muir, who left the boys' home in 1955, says the fourth reunion this Sunday, August 8, will be a “happy-sad” day.

“We like to see what they've done in life,” he said.

“Some blokes won't come forward – they don't want to talk about it.”

Thousands of boys spent their childhood years at the Riverview farm, run by the Salvation Army.

The 1998 Forde Inquiry found that the home was one of the worst and most notorious in Queensland for child abuse.

“They didn't care about us — we were just a number,” Mr Muir said.

His friend Fred Carter was at Riverview from 1952 to 1958, as a ward of the state.

“We worked like slaves,” he said.

Mr Carter and other boys were given compensation under the State Government's Redress Scheme, which gave grants to Queenslanders who had been abused as children in institutions.

Reunion organiser Robert Toreaux is hoping to compile a book about the boys' home, using the impact statements of men who lived there, as well as old photos and other material.

“We just want people to listen to us,” he said.

“The government's wiped their hands of us. They don't want to know us.

“(A lot of the boys) still need help. Some of them don't want to be reminded of the memories.”

Mr Toreaux says Salvation Army members these days “help a lot”.

The army and the Federal Government have in the past officially ‘apologised' to victims of abuse.

When the dozens of mates get together this Sunday, they would also like to see ex-students from Dinmore State Primary School who knew them.

The Riverview Training Farm opened in 1897 and closed in 1974.

Sadly, the home's records were lost in the Ipswich floods.

The reunion will be held from 10.30am to 2pm at the Salvation Army's Riverview Farm, Endeavour Road.