Children were put to work at the age of eight or nine years. Past residents of Beagle Bay have talked of working in gardens growing vegetables that they never ate, and were punished for eating anything if they stole any produce. Girls did laundry, domestic work, cooking. The food was poor in terms of quantity as well as quality and children often had to eat 'bubble bubble' a dish made of water, flour and sugar. They talk of some instances of severe physical punishment, including floggings.
Some people speak of sexual abuse, and physical punishment of a sexual nature.
There were opinions that earlier physical abuse at missions, perpetrated by non-Aborigines and by indigenous peoples, has created a cycle of abuse in communities with those who were affected as children growing up and perpetrating it on younger generations. For many, confidence in themselves was taken away. People were made to believe they were inferior to white people. There is still a lot of resentment over this. Many people speak of rejecting their full blood mothers and brothers and sisters as a result of what they were told about full blood people at the missions.