Horton House, in Toowoomba, was a children’s home run by the Salvation Army. It opened in 1963 and in 1976 the extended complex was renamed Horton Village. Former residents of Horton House gave evidence to the Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions in 1998-1999. Some remembered being easily identifiable as ‘Home…
Holy Cross Retreat or Magdalen Asylum, in Wooloowin, was operated by the Sisters of Mercy, Brisbane Congregation. It opened in 1889 as a home for unmarried mothers, disabled girls and infants. It ceased operating as a home for very young children in 1959. From 1974 it no longer cared for children but provided continuing care…
Stockton Mental Hospital was opened in 1917 in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. Prior to that it was known as Stockton Hospital for the Insane. It is not clear exactly when children began to be admitted but from 1937 the idea of new wards or buildings especially for children within the hospital was reported….
Peat Island Centre was a government run institution established in July 1989. It was previously known as Peat Island Hospital. In 2001, responsibility for the facility was transferred to the Department of Ageing and Disability. Peat Island Centre closed in 2010. In 1995, there were a number of allegations raised in the media of extensive…
Peat Island Hospital was a government run institution established in 1973. It was previously known as Peat and Milson Islands Mental Hospital. In 1989 it became known as Peat Island Centre. Women began living on Peat Island on respite in 1976, and permanently from 1978 onwards. Laila Ellmoos notes that in this era female residents…
Peat and Milson Islands Mental Hospital was a government run institution established in 1936. It was previously known as the Rabbit Island Mental Hospital. It was run by the Inspector General of Mental Hospitals until 1958. In 1973 it had a name change and became known as Peat Island Hospital. Peat and Milson Islands Mental…
Rabbit Island Hospital for the Insane was a government run institution established in 1910 and the first male patients were transferred there on 24 March 1911, “initially in order to provide temporary residences for male patients of the ‘chronic’ class” (State Records Authority of New South Wales). The patients admitted to Rabbit Island came from…
Myee Home was in Myee, a house in Arncliffe that was formerly the Myee Babies Home or Myee Hostel. It was used by the Department of Youth and Community Services as a home for secondary school aged boys who were considered to have intellectual disabilities between 1977 and some time in the 1980s.
The Blue Mountains Handicapped Children’s Centre was formed in Springwood in 1961 to provide accommodation, education, employment and training for children with disabilities. At first its services were for children but this was extended to adults over time. In 2014 it is still operating, as Eloura or Blue Mountains Disability Services Ltd.
Sunnyfield School, also known as Sunnyfield Children’s Home, was a special school for children with intellectual disabilities at Manly Vale. Children stayed over the school holidays, so it also functioned as a disability institution. It was started by the Sunnyfield Branch of the Sub-Normal Children’s Welfare Association, which became the Sunnyfield Association in 1956. It…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
