This photograph shows a small group of girls seated around a table in the centre of the Girls' Ward of the Randwick Asylum Hospital. Rows of beds, some occupied by children, are arranged along both sides of the ward.
This image was published in Children of the Back Lanes: destitute and neglected children in colonial New South Wales in 1986. The original image is held by the State Archives of New South Wales. This image has been dated as 1916, however as the asylum had closed by this date it is assumed that this image was taken slightly earlier than 1916.