Kumanka Boys Hostel (sometimes spelled Kamanka) was opened by the Children’s Welfare and Public Relief Board at Childers Street, Adelaide, in January 1946. It was intended as a hostel for teenage boys who were transitioning out of state-run institutions and were working in the community or attending high-school. The aim of the Hostel was to…
The Destitute Board was responsible for a number of homes in South Australia. In 1886, under the provisions of the Destitute Person’s Act Amendment Act, responsibilities for children in state care, and the management of children’s Homes, were transferred to the newly-created State Children’s Council. The Board continued to exist and was responsible for the…
The Christian Brethren, also known as the Plymouth Brethren, are 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. Sections within the Christian Brethren movement include the Exclusive Brethren, the Open…
The Sisters of Mercy, Adelaide Congregation, a Catholic religious order of women from Argentina via Ireland was established in 1880 in South Australia. They ran the St Vincent De Paul Orphanage and Yoorana Cottage, St Vincent de Paul Group Homes. In 2011, the Sisters of Mercy, Adelaide Congregation was dissolved and merged with 15 former…
Sisters of the Resurrection is a Polish Order of Catholic nuns that was established in Rome in 1891. In Melbourne an order of the Sisters of the Resurrection was established in 1952 and ran ‘Resurrection House’ in Essendon from 1952 to 1971. Between 1956 and 1978, the Resurrection Sisters ran St Stanislaus House in Royal…
St Vincent’s Trust Endowment Society ran St Joseph’s Refuge, Fullarton between 1992 and 2001.
The Salesians of Don Bosco are an international organisation of Catholic priests and brothers who work with disadvantaged and marginalised young people. They were founded by the Italian priest Saint John Bosco in the mid nineteenth century. The first Salesians came to the Kimberley region of Australia in 1922 in order to run a mission….
The Catholic Order of the Brothers of St John the Baptist was founded by Father John Healy of the Thebarton parish in around 1892. The Order ran a reformatory called St John the Baptist Home for Boys. In 1941, the Salesians of Don Bosco took over management of the St John the Baptist Home for…
The Sacred Heart Orphanage was established in 1940 at Crystal Brook. Run by the Good Samaritan Sisters, it originally catered for children in need whose fathers had been killed during World War II. In the 1970s the orphanage accommodated children between 4 and 15 years of age. The institution closed as an orphanage in 1979….
The State Children’s Council was formed in 1886 under the requirements of the Destitute Persons Amendment Act, 1886. This Act separated the care of children from the care of other destitute persons by transferring responsibility for children from the Destitute Board to the State Children’s Council. The Council comprised twelve honorary members who oversaw, and…
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