A moving and essential narrative of survival, injustice, and the human spirit — told through one woman’s forgotten story.
‘She was punished for being neglected. She survived to be heard.’
‘From stolen childhood to stolen voice — Ivy’s story will break and lift your heart.’
In 1945, 12-year-old Ivy Getchell was cast into the grim confines of Parramatta Girls Training School, deemed a victim of ‘neglect and moral danger.’ Stripped of her dignity and longing for her stolen mother’s locket, Ivy’s only hope was escape through fostering.
What followed was a relentless cycle of institutionalisation and betrayal. From a brief respite at Thornleigh, where kindness and a love for the violin bloomed, to a brutal foster placement culminating in an attempted rape and a return to Parramatta as a ‘criminal.’ Even amidst humiliation and cruelty, Ivy found strength, rising to school captain and daring to seek freedom in marriage — only to be trapped in another cycle of abuse and endure the devastating loss of her children.
This isn’t a story of suffering – it’s proof that love can outlast even the darkest cruelty. Fuelled by the memory of her parents’ affection, Ivy’s spirit, though scarred, learned to flourish. She found freedom from abuse and the courage to reclaim her voice.
Decades later, the Forgotten Australians Inquiry and a Royal Commission offered a platform for Ivy to share her truth, confronting the stigma she carried for so long. Her voice, like thousands of others, had been silenced for too long.
This is Ivy’s story – a love story of enduring resilience, a searing indictment of systemic failures, and a call to action for a future where no child is forgotten.
‘In a world that sought to break her, Ivy refused to hate, holding onto dignity and love as her greatest acts of resistance.’
From the Winner of the 2024 Varuna Fellowship and 2021 Lane Cove Literary Award.
About the Author :
Eila Jameson-Avey is an Australian author passionate about storytelling that shines light on social justice and human resilience. Winner of the 2024 Varuna Fellowship and the 2021 Lane Cove Literary Award, she combines heartfelt research with lived experience to create stories that resonate deeply. Her novel Wellworth (Hawkeye Books, 2023) draws on her many years as a teacher and her love of regional NSW. Her poems have been published in Mona Magazine and Q Poetry. Eila respectfully acknowledges the Wiradjuri people – the Traditional Custodians of the land where she lives and writes – and honours their Elders, past and present. Author lives in Yarrawonga, NSW
Ivy Getchell born in 1932, during the Great Depression, in Lithgow in the heart of New South Wales, Ivy spent her first twelve years with her itinerant family, working in the fields picking vegetables. Home was Native Dog Creek near Oberon. In 1945, her family was abruptly shattered by the loss of their mother. The children were separated, and Ivy was placed in the notorious Parramatta Girls Training School, an institution infamous for its harsh discipline and bleak conditions. Her teenage years were marked by daily hardship and a scarcity of hope, yet Ivy drew on deep reserves of resilience that would carry her forward. At eighteen, she was sent to work in Queensland, where an abusive marriage followed. Finding the strength to leave, Ivy endured the heartbreak of separation from her children.
With Frank, the love of her life, she later built a life grounded in love and stability. She travelled to North America, where she connected with her great-grandmother’s tribe, the Blackfoot people, sleeping in teepees and learning traditional cultural practices passed down through her mother’s line.
Now in her nineties, Ivy has found a sense of home in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, surrounded by friends and family. Her life stands as a testament to resilience, truth-telling, and the enduring possibility of hope.
