Archives



Annesfield

Annesfield, in Albany, was founded as a residential school for Aboriginal children in 1852 by Mr and Mrs Camfield. The first children had been transferred from the Fremantle Native School. The children who were living in Annesfield when it closed in 1871 were transferred to Bishop Hale’s Institution for Native and Half-Caste Children in Perth….

Rottnest Island Reformatory

The Rottnest Island Reformatory was a government-run institution, established in 1881 as an alternative to sending boys younger than 16 to gaol. It closed in 1902 and boys were sent to the Salvation Army Reformatory School in Collie. The Rottnest Island Reformatory opened in 1881 as an alternative to sending boys ‘of European descent’ who…

Subiaco Boys’ Orphanage

Subiaco Boys’ Orphanage for Roman Catholic boys was established by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Perth in 1872 and run by Benedictines (1872-1876) then the Sisters of Mercy (1876-1897), and the Christian Brothers (from 1897). In 1901 the orphanage moved to Manning and became known as Clontarf. The St Joseph’s Girls’ Orphanage was then established…

Kenwick Farm

Kenwick Farm was established in 1947 and was a farm property for senior boys from Sister Kate’s Children’s Home in Queen’s Park. It was located in Kenwick along the Canning River, not far from Sister Kate’s. Its stated purpose was to train boys in farm work for two years after they left school aged 14….

Memorial Cottage, Roleystone

Memorial Cottage was the name given to the Sister Kate’s Children’s Cottage home during its wartime evacuation to Roleystone in the Darling Ranges outside Perth. This cottage was purchased with funds donated from England in memory of Archdeacon Lefroy, hence the name ‘Memorial Cottage’. After a couple of years, the children and staff moved back…

Greenbushes Hostel

Greenbushes Hostel was the name given to the Sister Kate’s Children’s Cottage Home during its wartime evacuation to Greenbushes in southern Western Australia. Some children and staff relocated to the de-licensed Duke of York Hotel at Greenbushes on 29 February 1942. By 1944, some of the children and staff had returned to Queen’s Park but…

Mofflyn

Mofflyn (or Mofflyn House) was the new name given in 1959 to the Methodist Children’s Home. It housed children in four cottages (Wesley, Guild, Dowerin and Meckering). In 1984, the Mofflyn campus was closed but the Uniting Church continued to be involved in out of home care through Mofflyn Child and Family Services. Mofflyn (which…

Sister Kate’s Children’s Cottage Home

Sister Kate’s Children’s Cottage Home was established in Queen’s Park by mid-1934 when Sister Kate Clutterbuck moved with seven Aboriginal children from the Children’s Cottage Home at Buckland Hill in Cottesloe. The Home was funded by the Aborigines Department to house ‘fair skinned’ Aboriginal children. During World War II the children at the Home were…

Mt Lawley Reception Home

The Mount Lawley Government Reception Home was first established as an industrial school at Claisebrook in 1893 after the passage of the Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act 1893, moving to Subiaco in 1897. It functioned as a temporary reception centre for children temporarily or permanently placed out of home, which remained largely unchanged until the…

Sunday Island Mission

Sunday Island Mission was established in 1899 as a private mission by Sydney Hadley. It was run by the Australian Aborigines’ Mission (1923-1929) and the United Aborigines Mission from 1929 to 1934 when it relocated to Wotjulum (1934-1937) before returning to Sunday Island. From 1905, children at Sunday Island were under the guardianship of the…