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Canossian Daughters of Charity

The Canossian Daughters of Charity is a Catholic order founded in Italy in 1808. They first came to Australian in 1949, and arrived in Darwin in 1970 with the purpose of establishing a residential children’s home – Bakhita Village. They ran the children’s home from 1972 until late December 1974, when it was destroyed by…

Bakhita Village

Bakhita Village was opened in the Darwin suburb of Coconut Grove in January 1972 by the Canossian Daughters of Charity, a Catholic order from Italy. It was a small complex of five family-style homes that provided long and short term residential care for children. Bakhita Village was open for just short of three years before…

Roman Catholic Orphan School

The Roman Catholic Orphan School was established at Waverley House, a large home in Waverley, in 1837. It was the first Catholic orphanage in Australia. It was opened in response to community concerns about Catholic children being placed in the government-run Protestant orphan schools, where they were raised as Protestants, not Catholics. The home was…

St Patrick’s Orphan School

St Patrick’s Orphan School was established at Windsor in September 1840. It was run by a private management committee in association with St Matthew’s Catholic Church, Windsor. At its official opening in October 1840 there were seven children in residence, with 20 children in the school by June 1841. The closing date of St Patrick’s…

Benedictine Missionary Sisters

The Benedictine Missionary Sisters were a group of Catholic religious women who ran what was known as St Joseph’s Native School and Orphanage, New Norcia from 1904 to 1974. The Benedictine Missionary Sisters were encouraged, according to Massam (2008, p.205) to value ‘poverty, hard manual work, separation from family, obedience to a superior, and dedication…

Mary MacKillop Centre, South Perth

The Mary MacKillop Centre, South Perth is the Western Australian centre of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. In Western Australia, the Sisters ran the St Joseph’s Preventorium in Kellerberrin. The Mary MacKillop Centre holds a small collection of records relating to St Joseph’s Preventorium.

Kalumburu Mission

Kalumburu Mission (also known as Drysdale River Mission until around 1950) provided dormitory style residential care for Aboriginal boys and girls aged from infancy to around 16 years of age. Kalumburu began as an ‘outstation’ of the Drysdale River Mission in 1932 and became the main ‘Mission Station’ in 1937. Kalumburu Mission was managed by…

House of the Good Shepherd

The House of the Good Shepherd on Pitt Street provided accommodation for females over the age of fourteen years. It opened in 1848, in the building of Carters’ Barracks, and was initially staffed by the Irish Sisters of Charity. In 1857 a new order was established to run the institution called the Sisters of the…

Bethany Guest Home for Children of Sick and Expectant Mothers

Bethany Guest Home for Children of Sick and Expectant Mothers was located in Strathfield. It was established by the Legion of Catholic Women (an organisation known in 2021 as the Catholic Women’s League) in 1946. In 1948, the League applied to the Sisters of Mercy at Grafton to administer the Home for them. The Sisters…

St Mary’s Hostel

The St Mary’s Hostel was a hostel providing accommodation for up to 20 young women working in the Geelong area. It was initially run by The Legion of Mary, and from 1964 came under the administration of the Sisters of the Holy Angels. The hostel was located in a building called “Hawthorne” at 39 Skene…