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Communities Department, State Government of Queensland

The Communities Department was created on 12 February 2004. The Families Department was abolished and its functions transferred to two new departments; Communities Department and Child Safety Department. On 26 March 2009, the Communities Department absorbed the functions of the abolished Child Safety Department. Under Departmental Arrangements Notice (No. 1) 2012, the Department of Communities…

Queensland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty

The Queensland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals dropped the word “Animals” from its title in 1892. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty inspectors worked voluntarily as probation officers until 1912, when the inspectors of the State Children Department took over these duties. The Council of the Society, following a close study…

Queensland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

The Queensland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in Brisbane in 1876. The society was run by a management committee consisting of the Governor of Queensland and other leading citizens. The aim of the society was to prevent, where possible, cruelty to animals by enforcing the rules of the organisation and…

Brisbane Servants’ Home

The Brisbane Servants’ Home, 166 Ann Street, Brisbane, was established by Lady Bowen and a group of private citizens in 1865 (including Mary Ann Douglas, wife of Legislative Assembly member John Douglas). It provided a home for single adult females who had migrated to Queensland and were awaiting employment as domestic servants. The building was…

Queensland Lying-In Hospital

The Queensland Lying-In Hospital was established on 2 November 1864 in rented accommodation, “Fairview House”, Leichardt Street, Brisbane. A ladies committee ran the hospital. On 26 January 1866, the hospital moved to newly built premises in Ann Street, Brisbane. It was renamed the Lady Bowen Hospital, after the wife of Queensland’s first governor, in November…

Lady Bowen Hospital

The Lady Bowen Hospital, situated in Ann Street, Brisbane, was previously known as the Queensland Lying-In Hospital. It was renamed the Lady Bowen Hospital, after the wife of Queensland’s first governor, in November 1867. The Lady Bowen Hospital provided hospital care for indigent, unmarried and destitute women of Queensland and their babies. On 29 December…

Commission for Children, Young People and Child Guardian

The Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian was established in 2000 to promote and protect the rights, interests and wellbeing of children and young people in Queensland. Previously, it was known as the Queensland Children’s Commission (established in 1996). The Commission ceased operations on 30 June 2014. Many of the Commission’s functions…

Royal Queensland Bush Children’s Health Scheme

The Royal Queensland Bush Children’s Health Scheme (BUSHkids) was founded in 1935 by the Governor of Queensland, Sir Leslie Orme Wilson, to meet the health needs of children living in bush communities. Children were sent to seaside holiday homes for a period of six weeks. During this time they received medical and dental treatment if…

Catholic Daughters of Australia

In 1927 Archbishop James Duhig approached the Ladies Committee of the Seamen’s Catholic Club and suggested the formation of a branch of the Catholic Daughters of Australia (CDA).The inaugural meeting of the Catholic Daughters of Australia, now known as the Catholic Women’s League (CWL) of Queensland, was held on the 10th September 1927. Their motto,…

The Open Brethren Assembly

The Open Brethren are a section of the Christian Brethren, an evangelical protestant church with no ordained ministers and a strong lay involvement in their activities. They originated in England and Ireland in the 1820s, and by the 1850s had spread to Australia. They do not have a central administrative body or hierarchical leadership, and…