The Disability Services Commission (DSC) was formed by the ‘Disability Services Act 1993 Western Australia’. The DSC merged and replaced the Authority for the Intellectually Handicapped (AIH, or ‘Irrabeena’) and the Bureau for Disability Services. The Act made the DSC responsible to the Minister for Disability Services, with its key functions being to ‘unify and…
Heathcote opened in 1929 on Point Heathcote at Applecross. First known as the Heathcote Reception Home, this government hospital was for people with ‘recent and recoverable’ psychosocial disabilities, and sometimes housed children and adolescents. It closed in 1994. The Royal Commission into Lunacy recommended in 1922 that a new hospital be built to treat people…
The Division for the Intellectually Handicapped (DIH) was part of Mental Health Services until 1984 and then part of the Health Department. It established and ran hostels for children, young people and adults with intellectual disabilities. The DIH was replaced by the Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons in 1986.
The Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons (AIH) was formed by the Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons Act 1985. Its role was to advance the ‘rights, responsibility, dignity, development and community participation of people with intellectual disability in Western Australia’. The AIH ran many hostels and developed a Local Area Coordination service to assist people with…
The Royal West Australian Institute for the Blind (RIB) was established in 1895 as the WA Industrial School for the Blind in Maylands. It was run by a private committee of ‘subscribers’ who supported the Institute financially. Children lived and went to school at the Institute and there was also a workshop and living quarters…
The Geraldton Protestant Children’s Home Inc was incorporated in Western Australia on 26 May 1921. It ran a number of hostels for children going to high school in Geraldton including the Protestant Children’s Home.
The Anglican Diocese of North West Australia was part of the Diocese of Perth (Northern Diocese) from 1910 but was established as a separate entity in December 1961.
The C.W.A. Girls’ Hostel was established by the Country Women’s Association in 1952 in Haig Crescent, Bunbury. It was also known as Heath House. The Holstel provided accommodation for girls attending Bunbury High School, replacing the Mary Clementina Hostel for Girls. Initially the hostel only had accommodation for 12 girls. In 1958, major renovations including…
The Sisters of St Elizabeth of Hungary was a British Anglican Order of nuns. They arrived in the Anglican Diocese of Bunbury in 1928 to help British group settlers in that district. Their convent was in Spencer Street. With a donation from a supporter, they built and ran the Mary Clementina Hostel for Girls who…
The Sisters of the Church were an Anglican religious order of women who arrived in Australia, from England, in September 1892. The Sisters focused on religious education and out-of-home care establishing schools in Adelaide and Hobart and a school and orphanage in Sydney. Arriving in Perth in 1901, they established children’s homes, schools and a…
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