Paul Coe was a young boy when he became a Ward of the State. Coe and his brothers were taken from their home and placed at Cowra Mission in separate areas. From the mission he was sent to a lucerne and dairy farm in Morpeth, New South Wales. Coe had early morning starts milking cows then working with the lucerne crop, before back to milking cows until 5 or 6 o'clock in the evening. After a while he was sent down to Sydney before being sent on to Kangaroo Valley, New South Wales, to another dairy farm to work. Coe stayed working on this farm until he was eighteen.
With his employment finished on the dairy farm, Coe went back to Cowra. There he found one of his brothers, who had just come back from World War One. Coe soon met up with another brother before finding his father again.