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. The Centre was known as Eloura from 1963 to 2014, when it became DARE Disability services.
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…
Crowle House was a residential facility for children with intellectual disabilities that was set up by the Sub-Normal Children’s Welfare Association in Ryde in 1952. It was also known as “Once Upon a Time”. A school was attached until 1978. Many of the children at Crowle House became long term residents and stayed upon reaching…
The Belmont Crippled Children’s Home opened in April 1952 in Belmont at Newcastle. It was a holiday home run by the NSW Crippled Children’s Association. The property was demolished in 1979.
The Special School for Multi-Handicapped Blind Children was set up by the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children in 1974 at North Rocks. It was a school with medical, therapeutic and residential facilities for children with a range of disabilities and was extended in 1980. It operated until 1990, when it became the Alice…
The Deaf and Dumb Institution, founded in 1860, was renamed the New South Wales Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind in 1868. It was run by a board of Directors as a public charitable institution for the education of deaf and blind children and had a residential facility for school-aged children. Initially based at…
The Royal Institution for Deaf and Blind Children was the new name given to the Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and the Blind in 1957, when Queen Elizabeth II conferred the title ‘Royal’ on the Darlington school and residential facility. It was run by a board of directors. The Institution moved to North Rocks in…
The Deaf and Dumb Institution was founded in Sydney in 1860 by Thomas Pattison, a deaf migrant from Scotland, to provide education to deaf children. It started as a private school, with a residential facility, in Liverpool Street, near South Head Road. It then moved to Castlereagh Street and was officially declared a public institution…
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