Archives



Women’s Home, Fremantle

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…

Female Home [Poor House, Perth]

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…

Carrolup Native Settlement

Carrolup, near Katanning, was a government-run ‘native settlement’ which had been closed in 1922 and was and re-opened by the Department of Native Affairs in 1939. By 1944, there were 129 boys, girls and older children in government ‘care’ at Carrolup. In 1951, the government withdrew most of the children from Carrolup and it was…

Cawley House

Cawley House was one of the group Homes in the grounds of the government-run Walcott Centre in Mt Lawley. In 1984, Cawley House was replaced by the Bedford Park Hostel. Cawley House was a government-run group Home, created when the Walcott Centre was divided into two separate Homes, Andrew House and Cawley House. Cawley House…

Mount Henry Hospital [Youth disability accommodation]

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.

Pyrton

Pyrton was a government-run Home for children diagnosed with profound intellectual disabilities. It opened in 1966 in Eden Hill (Lockridge) with children transferred from Claremont Hospital. Pyrton provided long-term accommodation and short-term respite ‘care’. From 1973, young people could be employed in an onsite Training Centre. No children were admitted to Pyrton after the 1980s….

King Edward Memorial Hospital

King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEMH) has been Western Australia’s principal public maternity and gynaelogical hospital since 1916. Many young women in out of home care were admitted there, and many babies were adopted from KEMH. In 1958, following overcrowding in the maternity wards of KEMH, the state government purchased Kensington House, at 91 Hensman Road….

Devonleigh

Devonleigh, in Peppermint Grove, was a former maternity hospital that was used by Mental Health Services (MHS) to accommodate children with intellectual disabilities from 1979 until it closed in 1987. On the closure of the Devonleigh Maternity Hospital it was proposed to use the facility to accommodate up to 32 children with moderate intellectual disabilities,…

Devonleigh Maternity Home

Devonleigh Maternity Home was established in 1931, following an extension of the Devonleigh Hospital (which had opened in 1926). It was located in the Perth suburb of Peppermint Grove. It was privately run until 1948, when it was taken over by the State Government (most likely by the Public Health Department). Babies were adopted from…

Heathcote

Heathcote began in 1929 on Point Heathcote at Applecross. It was first known as the Heathcote Reception Home, and was a government hospital for people with ‘recent and recoverable’ mental illness. Heathcote sometimes housed Children and adolescents. It closed in 1994. The Royal Commission into Lunacy recommended in 1922 that a new hospital be built…