The Eastwood Home for Mothers and Babies was established in 1915 by the State Children’s Relief Board at Brush Farm House in Eastwood. Women and children who had been at the Shaftesbury Home for Mothers and Babies were moved there in 1915. Around 90 mothers and 200 children passed through Eastwood each year until it…
Myee, also known as Myee Babies’ Home and Myee Hostel, was established in 1926 in Arncliffe and run by the Child Welfare Department. It was a home for babies and up to 16 young unmarried expectant mothers who had been committed by the Children’s Court to state care. Some mothers retained their babies after they…
Montrose was a house in Burwood that was turned into a maternity hospital and infants’ home in 1920 by the State Children’s Relief Department, caring for unmarried mothers and their babies, and infants who were state wards. By 1936 it had been converted to Montrose Hostel by the Child Welfare Department. Montrose was one of…
Corelli Hospital for Women (known as ‘Corelli’) was opened in Marrickville as a home for mothers with babies and expectant mothers by the State Children’s Relief Board in September 1919. In its first year it housed 41 mothers with 39 children, for an average of four months. By the 1930s it seems to have served…
St Margaret’s Hospital was established in Strawberry Hills [Surry Hills] in 1894 as a lying-in home, by a religious community led by Gertrude Abbott. It grew and became a maternity hospital, lying in home and provided midwifery nursing training. In 1910, St Margaret’s moved to Darlinghurst. From 1937 was run by the Sisters of St…
Thornbury Lodge was a children’s and infants’ home established at Baulkham Hills in 1958 or 1959, by the Child Welfare Department. It was a receiving home, and was set up to increase facilities for children in transit from foster homes to hospitals, institutions or other placements as Bidura had become too crowded. Thornbury Lodge housed…
McCredie Cottage was established in 1970 by the Child Welfare Department. It was located on the property of Linnwood Hall (or Lynwood Hall) in Holroyd, south of Guildford, in New South Wales. McCredie Cottage was a home for about 27 preschool aged children who were state wards, and who were waiting to be placed in…
Raith Lark Hill Hostel at Campbelltown was established by the Child Welfare Department in 1964. The main house was called Raith, while Lark Hill was a baby and toddler complex that, according to the Child Welfare Department Annual Report of 1966, was within the same grounds. Raith Lark Hill accommodated children of a wide range…
Broken Hill Shelter was established in 1942 by the Child Welfare Department as a remand home for children defined as delinquent. By the 1950s it mainly operated as housing for children awaiting their hearings at the nearby Broken Hill Children’s Court. There was room for six boys and girls up to the age of 18…
Bidura in Glebe was a historic house that was acquired by the New South Wales Government in 1920. It was converted to a depot and receiving home, holding children while they awaited foster placements, children’s court hearings or transfer to other establishments. Many children stayed for extended periods. In 1923 it was named the Metropolitan…
Dec 17, 2025
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