For several weeks in 1907, the Australian public was gripped by a sensational trial in Perth that exposed the dark practice of baby farming.
Searching through court records, state archives and newspaper reports from the time, Dr Budrikis discovered the practice of baby farming — private, for-profit foster care arrangements, some of which benefitted children while others did not. "Elizabeth Booth took Ethel to Alice Mitchell at the age of three months when she had to leave the fallen women's home," Dr Budrikis said.
The reason Ethel's death resulted in criminal charges was because police had already begun to investigate Mitchell and had visited her house, where they found several emaciated babies and ordered they be taken to hospital.Perth Public Hospital on Murray Street, 1906, where Ethel Booth was taken before her death.