The Ian Bayliff Fairbridge Farm School Molong Papers website is a web project by Ian ‘Smiley’ Bayliff in an effort to bring together a wide range of materials relating to the Fairbridge Farm School scheme, and to make this information available to all.
The bulk of the papers focus on The Fairbridge Farm School at Molong, NSW, where Smiley himself attended, with the majority of the content from his own research as well as receiving valuable contributions from former children of the Fairbridge Farm School scheme and members of the public.
Ian ‘Smiley’ Bayliff
1946-2021
Ian Bayliff got the nickname ‘Smiley’ from other Fairbridge kids because his happy and carefree spirit reminded us all of a young boy called ‘Smiley’ in an Australian movie of the same name that came out in the 1950’s.
Smiley and I were the same age and good friends at Fairbridge and shared many memories of the good and the bad times there. We both recall playing sport together, going on scout camps, hunting rabbits, summer camping at Gerroa on the south coast, or boiling a billy of tea on the Molong Creek on a Sunday afternoon – and getting into lots of mischief.
But Smiley did it much tougher than me at Fairbridge. I was nearly thirteen when I got there, and was only there three years before I went to live with my mum who had followed us out to Australia. He came out when he was only eight, spent nearly nine years there, and like most Fairbridge kids his parents never came to Australia. For most of his childhood he lived in Blue Cottage with a dreadful cottage mother named Da Freitas who hit and whipped the smallest children for little or no reason at all. Somehow Smiley kept a happy outlook and avoided being bitter about Fairbridge – except for Da Freitas.
Smiley was popular among Fairbridge kids. I never heard anyone say a bad word about him. He helped lots of the former Fairbridge children who as adults were still trying to track down long lost families in the UK. When I started researching the book ‘The Forgotten Children’ in 2006 I found Smiley to be a fantastic researcher. Ever since then he has been remarkable in uncovering so much of the truth of the Fairbridge story – particularly the dark side that has been deliberately covered up and hidden by Fairbridge and even by governments. I have just finished writing another book about the Fairbridge which will be published early in the new year by Penguin Random House. It is dedicated to Smiley, who has helped me tirelessly over many years.
In recent times Smiley has been heavily involved in the building of the Fairbridge Childrens Park on the Molong Creek, down below the old farm school site. You may remember in March this year Smiley was chosen to officially open the military memorial in the park, which recognises the nearly one hundred Fairbridge kids who served in the Australian armed forces. On the day of the opening he was clearly very ill, but said he wouldn’t have missed it for the world and that it was one of his proudest moments. He was joined at the opening ceremony by other Fairbridge veterans, some of whom fought with him in Vietnam, including Tony Stepney, John Barron, and Smiley’s two brothers, Graham and Syd.
Despite the rocky start Smiley had a good life. The love of his life was his wife Kerry who died ten years ago, and his daughters Kelly and Kristie. He used to tell me how much he missed Kerry but took great comfort in recent times from his three young grandsons, Harry, Oscar and Edward.
For the last few years Smiley would regularly come over to my place early on a Sunday morning and we would take our dog Charlie for a run in the park.
Charlie and Smiley were such great mates that Charlie somehow knew it was Sunday and would sit patiently on the back porch staring at the back gate until Smiley arrived – and then excitedly jump all over him.
We would then drive down to Centennial Park and sit every week on the same bench, two old men throwing a ball for Charlie to chase and fetch back to us. Charlie never seems to tire of doing it over and over. Smiley reckons we solved most of the world’s problems sitting talking on that bench where many of the regular users of the park used to make a point of saying hello to us. The last time I went to see Smiley my wife and I took Charlie who almost wet herself with the joy of seeing her old mate again.
Smiley was a wonderful and loyal friend to me and to heaps of other Fairbridge kids.
I loved him dearly and miss him greatly. There are still some mornings when Charlie goes out and sits on the porch staring at the back gate waiting for Smiley. It’s a nice reminder of a beautiful man and a life well lived.
David Hill