The Dreadnought Trust was one of the first organisations to be involved in child migration in New South Wales. It raised funds to bring British child and youth migrant boys to Australia. The first Dreadnought Boys arrived in 1911. The scheme ended around the time of the Great Depression, in 1930. The Dreadnought Trust was…
The Big Brother Movement (BBM) was established in 1925 by Richard Linton, a Melbourne businessman, to sponsor youth migration from Britain to Australia. It was one of several non-government organisations involved in immigration to Australia in the 1920s. The Big Brother Movement was originally conceived as a form of sponsorship, by which each youth migrant,…
The Society for the Relief of Destitute Children opened an asylum for children in Ormond House, a mansion in Paddington, in 1852. The Asylum held 150 children aged 3 to 10 years who were defined as needy yet had not been admitted to the Orphan Schools. Every child admitted (including voluntary admissions) to the Asylum…
The Congregation of Christian Brothers is a world wide religious community within the Catholic Church that was founded by the Irish missionary and teacher Edmund Rice (1762-1844) in 1802. Their main focus is social justice and the evangelisation and education of youth and they have run hundreds of schools and institutions across the world. The…
New South Wales Baptist Homes Trust was established in 1944 to provide services to the aged and children. The Trust ran Leith House, Ruhamah, Carisbrook, Thorington and Karingal Children’s Home. In 1986, its name was changed to Baptist Community Services to capture the organisation’s expanding ministry.
The Department of Juvenile Justice was created in 1990 by the New South Wales Government. It is responsible for juvenile justice centres, which had previously been known as juvenile detention centres. In 2012 these were: Acmena (Grafton); Broken Hill Shelter (Broken Hill); Cobham (Werrington/St Mary’s); Emu Plains (Emu Plains); Frank Baxter (Mt Penang); Juniperina (Lidcombe);…
The Department of Justice and Public Instruction oversaw industrial schools and reformatory schools, in addition to ordinary public schools. It was replaced by the Department of Public Instruction in 1881. During the early years of the settlement of the Colony of New South Wales, the Governors provided support to schools. By the 1820s the Churches…
The Queen Victoria Hospital for Women and Babies in Annandale was founded by George Lewis in 1895 and run by Matron Attenborough from 1896 until 1924. It catered to both married and single mothers. Many children of single mothers were adopted from the Hospital. In 1930 it temporarily moved to Herbert Street, Dulwich Hill before…
Crown Street Women’s Hospital was established in Hay Street in 1893 and moved to Surry Hills in 1897. It was a public women’s and maternity hospital. In addition to being a general women’s hospital, Crown Street accommodated many single mothers, including state wards and Aboriginal wards, and its staff arranged a high proportion of New…
St Heliers was established at Muswellbrook by the Child Welfare Department in 1945. It was a rural training home, organised on the cottage system, on 700 acres. Some children were transferred from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and placed in this Home. It was initially for boys aged 14 to 18 years who were thought…
Dec 17, 2025
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