The Royal Women’s Hospital was established in 1856. Its first location was a two-storey house in East Melbourne, then in 1858 it moved to a site in Madeline St (now Swanston St) in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Carlton. Originally called the Melbourne Lying-In Hospital and Infirmary for Diseases of Women and Children, its name was…
The Western Australian State Children Department existed between 1 January 1917 and 22 December 1927. The State Records Office website provides an overview of the State Children Department: Following a change of permanent head, the Public Charities and Children’s Department became one department, the State Children’s Department in 1917, to reflect the greater emphasis placed…
The Catholic Family Welfare Bureau – Archdiocese of Melbourne was previously known as the Catholic Social Service Bureau. It was a Catholic social work organisation that administered applications for children to be admitted to Catholic children’s Homes in Victoria. It also counselled single mothers and arranged foster care placements and adoptions. The Catholic Family Welfare…
Bethany Babies’ Home was originally the Geelong Female Refuge when it was established in 1868. From 1928, the Refuge became known as Bethany Babies’ Home. It accommodated pregnant women, babies and toddlers; it operated a maternity hospital and also adopted babies out. In 1977, it ceased to operating as a Home and adoption agency and…
The Copelen Street Family Centre was established in 1974 in South Yarra. It included a children’s care centre, offered family counselling, and provided foster care. By the late 1980s the South Yarra property was sold and in 1991, the Centre was renamed Copelen Child and Family Services. The Copelen Street Family Centre grew out of…
Connections UnitingCare is an amalgamation of several agencies brought together in May 2000. Connections provides services including adolescent community placement, adoption and permanent care and an adoption information service. Connections holds adoption records for all the Uniting Church’s babies’ facilities and children’s facilities. These facilities include institutions formerly operated by the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches….
The Presbyterian Babies’ Home opened in 1928 in East Melbourne. In around 1933, the Home relocated to Camberwell. It housed babies and children up to the age of four. In 1977, it became the Canterbury Family Centre. The Argus newspaper reported on the opening of The Presbyterian Babies’ Home by Lady Stonehaven on 26 October…
The Arms of Jesus Babies’ Home, East Melbourne, was established in 1925 by the Mission of St James and St John. It housed babies up to the age of two. In 1933, the Babies Home was sold and the Freemason’s Hospital was erected on the site. The Mission purchased property in Balwyn, where the new…
The Methodist Babies’ Home in South Yarra was established in 1929. It organised the adoption of many babies in Victoria. In 1974, it became the Copelen Street Family Centre, offering foster care and preventive family services. The establishment of the Methodist Babies’ Home in 1929 coincided with the implementation of Victoria’s first adoption act (passed…
St Joseph’s Babies Home in Glenroy was established in 1975, when the Sisters of St Joseph closed their Foundling Hospital in Broadmeadows. The Glenroy Home established a foster care service, primarily to provide pre-adoptive placements. In 1985, it became part of the new St Joseph’s Babies’ and Family Service, established when the sisters closed the…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
