St Edmund’s School opened in 1951 in Wahroonga and was run by the Christian Brothers. It was a residential school for boys who had a visual impairment, aged from 5 to 17 years. After 1980 the school began to include students who had other sensory impairments and other special needs.
Werrington Park was established at Werrington, near St Marys, by the Child Welfare Department in 1954. It was originally a home for boys defined as intellectually disabled and taught farming and basic life skills. Starting with 12 boys, the home held 120 by the 1970s. In 1978 Cobham Children’s Court and Remand Centre were built…
May Villa was established at Carlingford, or Dundas, by the State Children’s Relief Board in 1919. It was first a home for around 30 girls defined in 1919 as ‘feeble-minded’, but in 1920 it became a home for primary school aged boys who were also defined as ‘feeble-minded’. It had a special school attached to…
Clairvaux was established at Katoomba by the Child Welfare Department in 1969. It began as a home for boys who were described having intellectual disabilities. It has a special school on site. Clairvaux was closed down in the 1990s. Clairvaux was purchased in 1967 to increase accommodation for wards of the state and boys with…
Berry Training Farm was established in 1934 by the Department of Child Welfare on the former Berry State Farm. It was a farm training school. At the time it was started it received boys aged between 14 and 18 from Turner or Suttor Cottages, Brougham, Yarra Bay, Weroona or May Villa. By the 1950s it…
The Benevolent Asylum, run by the Benevolent Society of New South Wales, was opened in 1821 by Governor Macquarie. It issued poor relief and took in the poor, destitute, disabled and aged but its main focus was pregnant women and children. The Benevolent Asylum closed in 1901 as the land was resumed by the government…
Westwood, at Bowral, was a residential education centre for girls over sixteen years old with mild intellectual disabilities that opened in 1965. It was run by the Methodist Department of Christian Citizenship, and commenced operation in April 1965 with an initial intake of nine girls. By 1968 Westwood held up to 90 girls and women….
Mater Dei School is located at Narellan, near Camden. It is a special school, with a residential programme, that was established by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan in 1957. It was previously the Mater Dei Orphanage. Records of children who have attended Mater Dei School since 1957 are held at the school. In 2011…
Kendall Grange, at The Bluff in Morisset Park in the Hunter Region, was established by the Brothers of St John of God in 1948 as a residential school for intellectually disabled boys. It began with 30 boys from Westmead Home, aged six to 16. In 1980 Kendall Grange changed to a residential school for boys…
Glendonald School for Deaf Children in Kew was run by the Victorian Department of Education. It provided education and some residential services for deaf children. The school was located in Marshall Avenue and the hostel was nearby in Belmont Avenue, Kew. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, ‘Deaf children whose families lived…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
