From the early 1900s the Salvation Army, Dreadnought Trust and Big Brother Movement operated voluntary youth migration schemes that shared similar aims to the child migration schemes – to recruit rural workers and populate the Dominions. Youth migrants, however, being older than 16, usually had more control over their lives.
The Big Brother Movement was the most successful of the schemes because it appointed an Australian ‘Big Brother’ to help the new migrant settle. The first 100 Little Brothers arrived in 1925 but the flow of young men soon ceased because of the Depression and outbreak of World War II. Resuming again in 1947 the Big Brother Movement sponsored over 12,000 youths settling in Australia up until 1982.
