The Hall for Children was established in 1979 at Hazelbrook, between Queens Road and Hall Parade, in a building called “Oaklands”. It was a non-government home for children and adults with disabilities described as having “high support needs” (Suffer the Children, p.1). From the time of its opening until 1994, it was funded by the…
The Cottage Home for Feeble-Minded Children, Parramatta, was established by the State Children’s Relief Board in 1907. It was intended to provide special treatment for children who were intellectually disabled or psychologically disturbed, but were not so unwell that they needed to be sent to a hospital for the insane. It offered schooling to the…
The Probationary Farm Home, Dora Creek, was established at Dora Creek in 1900 by the State Children’s Relief Department as a special institution for boys whose behaviour was such that they might otherwise have been institutionalised in Newcastle Hospital for the Insane. Dora Creek was a farm home, under the supervision of a private farmer,…
The Raymond Terrace Home was established by the State Children’s Relief Department in 1913. It was for boys who were defined at the time as being ‘feeble-minded’ and replaced the Private Probationary Home at Dora Creek. It also included boys who, for various reasons, were considered unable to be placed with other children. It held…
Mittagong Cottage Homes were established from 1885 by the State Children’s Relief Board. They were houses that each held 20 children, ranging in age from infancy to adolescence. The first were in the Mittagong township but in 1896 they moved to the Southwood Estate on Bong Bong Road, where further cottages were added. The cottages…
Brush Farm Infants’ Home was opened by the Child Welfare Department in 1968. It was at Brush Farm at Eastwood in the Dundas Valley, next to Brush Farm Home. It accommodated 40 infants of both sexes and sometimes older children as well. Brush Farm Infants’ Home closed in 1988 and the Brush Farm property was…
The Eastwood Home for Mothers and Babies was established in 1915 by the State Children’s Relief Board at Brush Farm House in Eastwood. Women and children who had been at the Shaftesbury Home for Mothers and Babies were moved there in 1915. Around 90 mothers and 200 children passed through Eastwood each year until it…
Brush Farm Home was established on the grounds of Brush Farm House in 1922 by the State Children’s Relief Department. It housed up to 60 girls. Over the next 60 years, many girls with intellectual and other disabilities resided at Brush Farm Home. From the late 1970s, boys were also admitted. Brush Farm House dates…
Winbin, in Strathfield, sometimes referred to as Winbin Depot, was purchased by the Child Welfare Department in 1954 and converted to a children’s home. It provided short-term care for around 20 preschool-aged boys and girls. It was, at first, a disability institution. It had a kindergarten teacher on site. From 1974 four female wards lived…
St Gabriel’s was established in Castle Hill in 1922 by the Christian Brothers. It was a residential home for boys who had a hearing impairment, aged from 5 to 17 years. St Gabriel’s stopped serving as a residential school in 1973, and became a co-educational day school. In 2014 it was still a school, but…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
