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Sky Pilot Fellowship

The Sky Pilot Fellowship was an evangelical Christian organisation set up by Gwen and Keith Langford-Smith, who fostered Aboriginal children on their Kellyville farm property, which became Marella Mission Farm. Keith Langford-Smith was a pilot and Anglican missionary who had lived in the Northern Territory, and had run Roper Mission for the Church Missionary Society…

Marella Mission Farm

Marella Mission Farm originated in the early 1950s with Gwen and Keith Langford-Smith fostering Aboriginal children on their farm property at Kellyville. From 1953, Marella Mission Farm operated as an institution where Aboriginal children were removed to. Keith Langford-Smith was a missionary who rose to fame in the 1930s for his accounts of flying across…

Church of England Homes

Church of England Homes was an agency of the Sydney Anglican Diocese that ran children’s homes in Sydney and the Blue Mountains. It was created around 1884 by Reverend TB Tress and Reverend Dr Manning, in Woolloomooloo, and grew to take in several committees that had operated in the Sydney area. Church of England Homes…

Coventry Home

Coventry Home, in Armidale, was set up in 1933 by the Church of England, and was run by a management committee. From 1950, this committee also ran the Ohio Boys’ Home at nearby Walcha. Coventry appears to have been established as a girls’ home, but also housed some boys, including those from Ohio Boys’ Home…

Timaru Refuge

Timaru Refuge was a crisis accommodation centre and youth refuge for children experiencing family crisis and requiring short-term accommodation. It was established by Charlton Youth Services, later known as Anglicare Youth Services, around 1980 at Macquarie Fields, near Campbelltown. It could accommodate up to 6 children between the ages of 10 and 18 years old….

George Brown College

George Brown College at Haberfield was a hostel used to house 20 Aboriginal children who had been evacuated from Croker Island (Northern Territory) during World War II by the Church Missionary Society. While staying at George Brown College, the Croker Island children attended Haberfield Public School. The evacuees had left by 1946. Claire Henty-Gebert, one…

Charlton Boys’ Home, Ashfield

Charlton Boys’ Home, Ashfield was established in 1966 by the Anglican Home Mission Society. It had earlier been known as the Charlton Memorial Home, located in Glebe, and moved into a property that was formerly the Milleewa Boys’ Home. In the late 1970s this property became known as Robinson Home. Like its predecessor, Charlton Boys’…

Bush Church Aid Society

The Bush Church Aid Society is a Christian ministry that has provided religious education, flying padres and counselling, welfare and medical services across outback Australia. In 2012, many of its workers are Aboriginal. It also ran children’s hostels, providing accommodation and residential support for children who had to leave their homes for their education. The…

Quipolli Children’s Home

‘Quipolli’, or ‘Quipolly’, was the name of a house in Leura that was used as a girl’s home by the Homes and Hostels Committee of the Anglican Home Mission Society from late 1925. It was for girls aged up to 15 years, some of whom had come from the Havilah Little Children’s Home at Normanhurst….

St Michael’s Church of England War Memorial Children’s Home

St Michael’s Church of England War Memorial Children’s Home was officially opened at Kelso, a suburb of Bathurst, on 4 May 1957, by the Anglican Youth Council and Children’s Home Council of the Bathurst Anglican Diocesan Synod. There were three homes in the complex: one was for children of kindergarten age, one for older boys…