Left on a Doorstep: The Role of Infant Abandonment in Preserving and Exposing Family Secrets in Australia 1834–1954

Abstract

Based on a database of Australian cases from 1834–1954, this article argues that abandonment was an intentional strategy intended to maximise a child's chances of survival while preserving its family's reputation. However, abandonment had the potential to expose family secrets, bringing them into the public gaze and subjecting them to interrogation. Abandonment was also used for revenge, exposing the identity of putative fathers in a demand for financial support. Through this analysis the article positions abandonment as a key site of interaction between the individual and society, and the private and the public in relation to the politics of secrecy.