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St Joseph's Home for Children had been at the site in Surrey Hills since 1890.
By 1969 St Joseph's provided accommodation for boys aged from 2 to 10 years, and girls aged 2 to 12 years old.
In line with broader changing public policy, the Sisters of St Joseph's continued to review child care operations. The move was away from institutional care to smaller family group home facilities: four self-contained units each held 10 beds; two family group homes were established close by in Surrey Hills; and a Temporary Care Unit was also established.
By the early 1970s the Sisters of St Joseph ran three children's homes. These were St Joseph's Broadmeadows, St Anthony's Kew, and St Joseph's Surrey Hills. Two Sisters who were also social workers assisted with the review and development of services.
The Temporary Care Unit (formerly 'Karingal') provided emergency care for up to 3 months to children aged 12 months to 12 years. Social workers assisted in supporting the family as a whole. The Catholic Family Welfare Bureau referred children to the Temporary Care Unit and provided any further family support or placements.
In the mid 1970s St Joseph's Surrey Hills established a service presence in Melbourne's under-resourced western suburbs. In 1979 a Family Group Home operated in Pascoe Vale.
In 1981 the management and administration of St Joseph Homes for Children was consolidated at Flemington. The Surrey Hills Home closed in the move to smaller family group home care and an acknowledged oversupply of residential child care facilities in the eastern suburbs. St Joseph's extended its family group home program into the inner eastern and north western suburbs, and the Temporary Care Unit was relocated to the inner suburbs.
After the closure of Surrey Hills, the organisation purchased houses in Finsbury Street, Flemington, to use for family group residential care. In the 1980s, the staff of St Joseph's were based in a row of shop fronts in Pin Oak Crescent, Flemington.
Houses in Finsbury Street, Flemington
