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New South Wales - Organisation

Yasmar Shelter (1946 - 1994)

  • Yasmar - Children's Court and Administration Building

    Yasmar - Children's Court and Administration Building, c. 1948, courtesy of Leonie Knapman.
    Details

From
1946
To
1994
Categories
Children's Home, Government-run, Home and Juvenile Justice Centre
Alternative Names
  • Ashfield Remand Home
  • Yasmar Child Welfare Home
  • Yasmar Detention Centre

Yasmar Shelter, also called Yasmar Child Welfare Home and Ashfield Remand Home, was established at Haberfield in the grounds of Yasmar Children's Court by the Child Welfare Department in 1946. It was a remand home for boys. Various additions were made to the buildings over the years. Yasmar Shelter closed in 1994.

Details

Yasmar was located in a historic house built by the Ramsay family. The name is Ramsay, spelled backwards. It was bought by the New South Wales Government in 1944. In 1946 it became a centre for juvenile justice. Timber buildings were erected on the former tennis and croquet lawns to house delinquent boys. The grand reception rooms of the house became a children's court and others served as magistrates' rooms.

Two boys escaped from Yasmar in January 1950. They had been arrested after they had run away from home and gone on a destructive rampage through two public schools, including one at Riverstone. The boys, aged 12 and 13, were in Yasmar on charges of being 'uncontrollable' and stealing, but made off over the school fence before police returned to question them.

In 1981 the estate was turned into a Juvenile Detention Centre. New buildings were designed by government architects, guided by the New South Wales Heritage Office, to ensure original features and the garden were maintained. The facilities were named Dobroyde and Waratah and the Sunning Hill Education and Training Unit opened for its inmates. A drawing of Yasmar House was used as its logo and carried over to the new Juniperina Juvenile Justice Centre.

In 1990 a youth committed suicide in the Yasmar Detention Centre. Christine Howlett writes that a coroner found that staff were poorly trained, particularly in resuscitation, and that grilles and hanging points should be removed from all juvenile detention centres. The Department of Youth and Community Services, which ran the centre at the time, instituted a system of regular night checks in its centres the wake of the death of this boy.

In 2013 it was still owned by the New South Wales Government and was being used by the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Location

1946 - 1994
Location - Yasmar Shelter was situated on Paramatta Road, Haberfield. Location: Haberfield

Publications

Resources

Online Resources

Photos

Carpentry classes, Yasmar Boys' Home
Title
Carpentry classes, Yasmar Boys' Home
Type
Image
Date
1948
Source
State Archives NSW

Details

School room, Yasmar Boys' Home
Title
School room, Yasmar Boys' Home
Type
Image
Date
1948
Source
State Archives NSW

Details

Yasmar: Washroom
Title
Yasmar: Washroom
Type
Image
Date
c. 1948
Source
Leonie Knapman

Details

Yasmar: Recreation Room
Title
Yasmar: Recreation Room
Type
Image
Date
c. 1948
Source
Leonie Knapman

Details

Kitchen at Yasmar [II]
Title
Kitchen at Yasmar [II]
Type
Image
Date
c. 1948
Source
Leonie Knapman

Details

Kitchen at Yasmar [I]
Title
Kitchen at Yasmar [I]
Type
Image
Date
c. 1948
Source
Leonie Knapman

Details

Yasmar: Dormitory
Title
Yasmar: Dormitory
Type
Image
Date
c. 1948
Source
Leonie Knapman

Details

Yasmar Junior Section
Title
Yasmar Junior Section
Type
Image
Date
c. 1948
Source
Leonie Knapman

Details

Yasmar - Children's Court and Administration Building
Title
Yasmar - Children's Court and Administration Building
Type
Image
Date
c. 1948
Source
Leonie Knapman

Details

Yasmar Boys Home, Ashfield
Title
Yasmar Boys Home, Ashfield
Type
Image
Date
1949
Source
State Archives NSW

Details

Ashfield Remand Home -
Title
Ashfield Remand Home - "Yasmar" - New South Wales
Type
Image
Date
23 March 1950
Source
Public Record Office Victoria

Details

The recreation room in the senior school at Yasmar
Title
The recreation room in the senior school at Yasmar
Type
Image
Date
c. 1962
Publisher
New South Wales government

Details

Main entrance to Yasmar. This building houses the Administrative Section and the Ashfield Children's Court
Title
Main entrance to Yasmar. This building houses the Administrative Section and the Ashfield Children's Court
Type
Image
Date
c. 1968
Publisher
New South Wales government

Details

Sources used to compile this entry: Ashfield Remand Home - "Yasmar" - New South Wales [Image], Date: 23 March 1950; Howlett, Christine, Deaths in Custody Australia: No. 3 Deaths in Juvenile Detention, 1980-1992, Australian Institute of Criminology, May 1993. Also available at https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/24270596; Jackson-Stepowski, Sue, 'Yasmar', in Dictionary of Sydney, Dictionary of Sydney Trust, 2008, http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/yasmar; Main entrance to Yasmar. This building houses the Administrative Section and the Ashfield Children's Court [Image], Date: c. 1968; Thinee, Kristy and Bradford, Tracy, Connecting Kin: Guide to Records, A guide to help people separated from their families search for their records [completed in 1998], New South Wales Department of Community Services, Sydney, New South Wales, 1998, https://clan.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/connectkin_guide.pdf.

Prepared by: Naomi Parry