List of Categories

A
Adoption Agency
The term ‘adoption agency’ refers to any organization involved in the adoption of babies and children, whether this was mandated by legislation or not. The adoption of children was, and is, controlled by state laws and the states of Australia introduced their first adoption acts at different times, beginning with Western Australia in 1907. Prior to the existence of legislation which legally recognized adoption, ‘de facto’, ‘private’ or ‘unofficial’ adoptions took place. These adoptions were organized by individuals (such as midwives, or solicitors), by organizations (such as religious or charitable agencies), as well as by government departments.
Advisory Council
The term ‘Advisory Council’ refers to a group established by legislation to act in advisory capacity to government on a particular area of policy (such as child welfare).
Advocacy Body
Advocacy bodies are groups formed by people who share concerns around a particular issue, in this case child welfare, and who seek to raise the priority of their concerns on the public and or government agendas.
Anglican
A person or institution affiliated with the Anglican Church.
B
Babies' Home
The term 'babies' home' generally refers to institutions for children under the age of three, though not all institutions which served this purpose were named babies’ homes. For instance, in the nineteenth century, such institutions were often known as infant asylums and others were called foundling hospitals. These institutions were usually associated with services for unmarried mothers, and often functioned (officially or not) as adoption agencies. Staff in babies' homes were usually trained nurses. Some institutions also provided training for mothercraft nurses.
Baptist
A person or institution affiliated with the Baptist Church.
C
Care Provider
Care provider is an umbrella term that refers to the group or organisation responsible for providing and administering out-of-home ‘care’ for children. Although this term was not in common usage before the late 20th century, this website applies it to describe all organisations which operated ‘care’ services, no matter when they were active.
Catholic
A person or institution affiliated with the Catholic Church.
Children's Home
Children’s Home is a term used to describe institutions providing out-of-home ‘care’ for children. The term was commonly used during the period from the 1920s to the 1970s.
Church
Church is a general term which may be applied to any number of (usually Christian) religious groups. The phrase ‘the church’ usually refers to the official opinion, policy or practice of a particular denomination.
Church Agency
Church agency refers to a service organisation which is associated with a specific Church. Some were operated by religious orders, especially within the Catholic Church, and others were operated by lay people. Examples of Church Agencies
Church Worker
A Church Worker is a person who works for a Church Agency or religious order.
Community Service Organisation
Community Service Organisations are privately run groups, often with a religious affiliation, which provide services to the community, including services to support families and out-of-home ‘care’ programmes. Although they are private organisations, they may receive some funding from government to provide particular services.
Convalescent Home
A Convalescent Home was a place where children and adults were sent to recover from illness.
Cottage Home
Cottage homes, or family cottages, institutions which provided residential ‘care’ for children under the cottage care model.
D
Disability Institution
Disability Institution is an umbrella term used to describe an institution which provided services to children with special needs.
E
Event
The term event is used to describe an occurrence of some significance within the history of child welfare.
F
Family Group Home
Family group home is the name given to a model of 'care' where small groups of children are accommodated in buildings that approximate the size and form of a normal family home. They began to appear in as a form of ‘care’ in Australia from the late 1940s, following concerns about the lack of individual attention given to children in large-scale institutions.
Farm School
The farm school was a model of residential 'care' for children, based in a rural area, which trained children (typically boys) in agricultural duties. Farm schools usually comprised a number of cottages in which children lived with cottage parents.
Female Rescue Home
‘Female Rescue Homes’ began as institutions associated with female rescue movement which was based on Evangelical Christian principles, and aimed to reform 'fallen women' (women engaged in prostitution) through a combination of prayer and hard work. The operations of the female rescue homes in Australia were not limited to the rescue of fallen women. Increasingly, these homes catered to single mothers and their babies. Some female rescue homes specialised in women with particular difficulties, such as alcohol and drug dependency, or women released from prison. Despite the evolution of this type of institution from the 1850s, the term 'female rescue home' was still in common use in Victoria in the mid-twentieth century.
Foster Care
Foster care is a method of out-of-home ‘care’ provided to children and young people who are temporarily or permanently unable to live with their families of origin. Foster care places such children in private family homes.
G
Glossary Term
An entry in the Find and Connect glossary.
Government Agency
A Government Agency is an organisation or service provider directly under the control of and funded by a state or federal government other than a Government Department.
Government Department
A government department is a group of public servants organised to administer a particular area of government activity, under the control of a minister.
Government-run
An organisation or activity for which a government (usually State, Territory or Federal) is directly responsible.
H
Hospital
A hospital is an institution that provides medical, surgical, or psychiatric care and treatment for the sick or injured, and to women during and after childbirth.
Hostel
A hostel was one type of institution for young people, usually those leaving children's homes or reformatories, to prepare them for life after 'care'. Hostels generally catered for 'older' children and young people, from around the age of 15. They were designed to assist former residents of orphanages and children's homes with the transition to paid employment and independent living.
I
Industrial School
Industrial Schools were a form of children’s institution popular in the late 19th century. Technically ‘neglected’ children were sent to industrial school to receive industrial training whereas ‘criminal’ children were sent to reformatories. This model of ‘care’ was promoted by the British 19th century child-reformer Mary Carpenter.
L
Legislation
A legally binding statute of a parliament (usually State, Territory, or Federal).
Leprosarium
Usually an isolated institution providing residential accommodation and medical services to people suffering from leprosy.
Lutheran
A person or organisation affiliated with the Lutheran Church.
M
Maternity Home
These were institutions providing residential accommodation to pregnant women, usually unmarried women, and they often functioned (officially or not) as adoption agencies.
Matron
The title given to a woman responsible for the day to day running of a children’s institution.
Methodist
A person or organisation affiliated with the Methodist Church.
Mission
A faith-based organisation that provides social and other forms of support to the needy. Missions continue to operate shelters and social services across Australia, including in cities. With Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the word mission has a specific meaning, as a residential settlement or institution.
Mission Dormitory
Mission Dormitory refers to the dormitory style accommodation buildings that were often placed on Aboriginal missions to house children of school age apart from the rest of their families.
N
Non-denominational
Non-denominational organisations were (and are) Protestant organisations without any specific denominational affiliation.
O
Orphanage
Orphanage is a term that was usually applied to institutions offering dormitory style accommodation for children. Often the children who lived in orphanages were not orphans in the traditional sense but rather children who could not live with their families for a variety of reasons.
P
Peak Body
Peak Bodies are organisations, often formed out of grass roots activism or interest in a particular issue, which act as a representative voice for the people and or groups who are their members.
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is a person who engages in philanthropic (charitable) activities through the contribution of their time, money, or other resources.
Place
A location.
Policy
A policy is a guiding principle adopted by a group, sector or government with respect to a particular issue.
Protestant
A person or organisation affiliated with any one of the Protestant Churches. With child welfare, services were often clustered under the umbrella terms of Protestant and Catholic.
Public Servant
A public servant is a person who works for the government, for example in a state, territory or federal department, but who hired, rather than elected, to that position.
R
Records Service
A Records Service is an organisation, or part of an organisation, which helps people find and locate records that were contain information about them and their time in ‘care’.
Reformatory
Reformatories were a form of children’s institution first promoted by the British 19th century child-reformer Mary Carpenter. They were originally intended as a means of separating children who had been convicted of criminal offenses from the adult prisoner population. In Australia reformatories were used for children who were convicted of offenses, but also for children who were, for a variety of reasons, judged as needing strong discipline.
Religious Minister
A person vested with the authority to preach a particular faith, and often an authority figure within that Church.
Religious Order
A group composed of initiated people committed to a particular set of values within a Church – within Christianity this often refers to religious Brothers (monks) and Sisters (nuns).
Repository
A storage facility.
S
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Church with a strong philanthropic mission which led it to become highly involved with child welfare in many parts of Australia.
School
An institution (residential or non-residential) designed to provide general education or training in a specialised area.
Social Movement
A philosophy or collection of ideas around which activists organise themselves.
Staff Member
A person employed by an organisation.
Superintendent
The person responsible for the administration and functioning of an institution.
T
Teacher
A person responsible for providing education.
Term commonly found on child welfare records
A phrase, word or abbreviation commonly used as a shorthand notation within child welfare records.
Training Institution
Tasmania only. Training institutions were institutions responsible for juvenile offenders or other children considered to require firm discipline.
Type of 'care'
A method of providing for children who are not living with their families.
Type of record
The different types of documents that have been, and still are, kept to record information about children in 'care'. These may be maintained by a government or non-government agency, or held in an archival repository, library or private hands.
U
Uniting Church
An amalgamation of a number of congregations of Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches.
W
Wesleyan Methodist
A person or organisation affiliated with the Wesleyan Methodist Church.
Y
Youth Training Centre
A term adopted from the 1950s onwards in place of ‘reformatory’ to describe residential institutions designed for children and young people considered to require stronger discipline that those directed to other forms of ‘care’.