Archives



Mirrabooka House

Mirrabooka House was run by the Salvation Army in the Perth suburb of Mirrabooka from 1987. From around that time, boys resident in the Salvation Army Home in Withnell House, Mt Lawley, moved to Mirrabooka. It mostly accommodated boys aged 15 to 17 while they studied or worked, with the purpose to help young people…

Withnell House Girls’ Home

Withnell House Girls’ Home was established by the Salvation Army in the premises of the former boys hostel in Withnell House, Mount Lawley in 1969, when the staff and girls from the Salvation Army Girls’ Home, Cottesloe moved there. The Home was licensed to house children with the name Withnell House Girls Home, but the…

Withnell House

Withnell House was a youth hostel in Mount Lawley run by the Salvation Army from about 1984. It took its name from the boys’ hostel that had occupied the same buildilng from 1953 to 1969. Around 1987, the boys resident there were transferred to Mirrabooka House. The 2003 Compendium of Salvation Army Social Services Soup-Soup-Salvation…

The Open Door

The Open Door was a maternity home run by the Salvation Army in North Fremantle from 1903 to 1922. From 1911, it was also known as Hopetoun. Originally established for ‘unmarried mothers’, The Open Door also provided general maternity services, with single and married women in separate sections. In 1922, Salvation Army’s maternity services moved…

Graceville Centre

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…

Boomerang Youth Hostel

The Boomerang Youth Hostel, Geraldton began in 1979 as accommodation for Aboriginal youth attending the Geraldton Technical School. By 2005, the hostel accommodated up to 20 Aboriginal youth on a short-term basis. The youth hostel closed in 2011 and reopened in 2012 for people of all ages. The Boomerang Youth Hostel was called the Aboriginal…

Gnowangerup Mission

Gnowangerup Mission was established in 1926 by Hope and Hedley Wright on behalf of the Australian Aborigines’ Mission, on a 6.5 acre Government Reserve just outside Gnowangerup. In 1929 the Australian Aborigines’ Mission became the United Aborigines Mission and the Wright’s continued to run the Mission on their behalf. The Mission moved two miles out…

Salvation Army Home for Neglected Girls, Perth

The Salvation Army Home for Neglected Girls was established in 1894 in Claisebrook Road, Perth (East Perth), for women and girls with a range of needs. The Home moved to Summers Street, East Perth in 1895. In 1898, new premises were built and the Home moved to Cornelie House in Lincoln Street (North Perth, Highgate)….

Cornelie Home

Cornelie Home was the name given in 1898 to the Salvation Army’s rescue Home when it moved to North Perth (Highgate) from Perth (East Perth). It accommodated single mothers, pregnant women, elderly women and women who had been released from prison. The 1900 report of the Aborigines Department showed that the Salvation Army Rescue Home…

Government Industrial School

A Government Industrial School was established in 1893 at Claisebrook, and moved to Subiaco in 1897. It was originally for girls, and was then used for older children and for the ‘temporary reception’ of children awaiting other placements. By 1902 it was called the ‘Government Industrial School and Receiving Depot’ and by 1907 it was…