Fox Crescent Cottage opened in Stuart Park in 1972. Run by Somerville Homes Incorporated it was the last of the six cottages which made up Somerville Cottage Homes. It accommodated up to eight children aged between 4 and 16 years under the supervision of cottage parents. The Cottage closed in 1974 and became a staff residence.
Fox Crescent Cottage opened in 1972 in the Darwin suburb of Rapid Creek. It was the last of six family group homes known as Somerville Cottage Homes. The Homes were run by Somerville Homes Incorporated, an association established by the United Church in Northern Australian and the Methodist Overseas Mission. The other Somerville Cottage Homes were located in Chapman Road, Trower Road Clarke Crescent in Rapid Creek and Luxton and Henry Street in Stuart Park.
Fox Street Cottage provided care for up to eight children, both Aboriginal and non Aboriginal, aged between 4 and 16 years under the supervision of cottage parents. A statistical summary dated 30 June 1971 shows that on that day the cottage was accommodating two girls aged 7 and 9 and four boys aged 5 to 12.
Fox Crecent Cottage was damaged by Cyclone Tracy in December 1974 and therefore closed as a cottage for children. No children were present at the time of the cyclone as all were on holiday placements interstate. The building was repaired and from 1975 was used as a staff residence.
Sources used to compile this entry: NTRS 50 Uniting Church of Australia, Northern Synod: Records relating to child care, Somerville Homes, Darwin, 1964-1979; NTRS 630/P2 82/3726 Welstat Children in Care; NTRS 630/P2 CW 83/0390 Somerville Community Services Inc Board Meetings.
Prepared by: Karen George and Gary George
Created: 20 January 2014
Last updated: 4 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nt/biogs/YE00331b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License