The Harry Giese Centre in Darwin opened in 1977. It was run by the Northern Territory Spastics Association (Inc), formerly the Darwin and Districts Spastics Paralysis Association, and provided assessment, treatment and residential care for people with disabilities including children. By 1985 it was providing services to one third of the young children with disabilities…
Bunyip House opened in Darwin in 1981. Run by Somerville Homes and its successor Somerville Community Services, it provided residential care and treatment for children with severe disabilities. It accommodated up to 7 children. The closing date for Bunyip House is not yet known. Records suggest it may have closed in the mid-1980s. Bunyip House…
The Bindi Centre was opened in Alice Springs in 1976 as an activity centre for young people with intellectual disabilities from throughout the Northern Territory. In the 1980s the Bindi Centre extended its services to provide supported accommodation in two residential units. The Bindi Centre then became part of a larger program known as Central…
The Alice Springs Spastic Centre Family Group Home in Mills Street Alice Springs was opened by the Alice Springs Spastic Council in 1982. It accommodated 5 children with disabilities who lived with house parents. The Alice Springs Spastic Centre Family Group Home was closed after a fire. The date of this closure has not yet…
Nollamara Children’s Respite House was established in 1994 by Catholic Care as a Home for children with disabilities. It has been run by Identitywa since 2001. Nollamara Children’s Respite House remained open in 2014.
Castledare Special School was established in 1929 in Queen’s Park (later, Wilson) by the Christian Brothers. Its purpose was to provide a specialised institution for up to 30 boys (including non-Catholics) with intellectual disabilities. Admissions were low so the special school was closed at the start of 1934. Later in 1934, a mainstream residential Catholic…
The Graceville Centre was the new name given in 1974 to what had been known since 1903 as Graceville. A Salvation Army Rescue Home, Graceville had replaced Cornelie Home at Highgate. By1974 the Graceville Centre in Highgate was a complex of buildings accommodating: mothers and children temporarily; women aged 16-25 for alcohol rehabilitation; and, young…
The Women’s Home in Fremantle was established by the government as a continuation of the Female Home (Women’s Home, Poor House) in Perth. Children and women who were intellectually disabled, destitute or pregnant and destitute, were moved from Perth into the buildings that had previously been the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum. It seems that very few…
The Female Home, or Poor House, began in 1851, and was then named the ‘Servants’ Home’. From 1854, destitute or orphaned children under 10 years of age were admitted. It was first run by the Ladies’ Friendly Society, but by the mid-1850s was government-run. From 1902, children were instead admitted to the Government Industrial School…
Mount Henry Hospital in the Perth suburb of Manning was used as a residential facility to accommodate young people with disabilities in a nursing home environment in 1997. The government-run hospital closed in mid-1998.
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
