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Lutanda Children’s Services

Lutanda Children’s Services is a Christian Brethren community service organisation that was established in 1954. Lutanda Children’s Services commenced by supporting Lutanda Children’s Home and opening Camp Toukley as a holiday home. From 1984, Lutanda Children’s Services provided care in family group homes in Baulkham Hills and Glenmore Park. In 2013, the family group homes…

Havilah Group Home

Havilah Group Home, at Frampton Street, Marrickville, was run by Church of England Children’s Homes from 1979 until 1984 as a family group home for up to 8 Aboriginal children between the ages of 6 and 14 years old. It was staffed by Aboriginal people and was one of the first homes of its kind….

Singleton Aboriginal Children’s Home

The Singleton Aboriginal Children’s Home was run by the Aborigines Inland Mission in the same rented house as the Singleton Home, which had been a girls’ home. Singleton Aboriginal Children’s Home was for both sexes and the children were aged from birth to 14 years. It was used by the Aborigines Protection Board as an…

Aborigines Inland Mission Bible Training College

The Aborigines Inland Mission [AIM] Bible Training College was located at Minimbah House, Whittingham, near Singleton. It was the new name for the Native Workers’ Training College, which was a Baptist ministry training school for teenage and young Aboriginal people from all over Australia. The name change marked a shift from being Baptist to being…

Australian Indigenous Ministries

Australian Indigenous Ministries is the modern name of the Aborigines Inland Mission. The name change occurred in 1998. In 2014 it is not directly involved in caring for children and it appears that its historical records and photographic collections were donated to the State Library of New South Wales between 2000 and 2010.

Native Workers’ Training College

The Native Workers’ Training College was established as a Protestant ministry training school for Aboriginal people by the Aborigines Inland Mission (AIM) at Pindimar, near Port Stephens, in 1938. The College was evacuated during World War II and operated in rented premises in Dalwood. In 1946 it moved to Minimbah House, Whittingham. It took Aboriginal…

Aborigines Inland Mission

The Aborigines Inland Mission (AIM) was an Evangelical Baptist missionary organisation established by Retta Dixon in 1905. The AIM and its staff ran the St Clair Mission, the Singleton Home, the Native Workers’ Training College and the Singleton Bible Training Institute in New South Wales, as well as the Phillip Creek Mission and the Retta…

Kingsdene Special School and Residential Service

Kingsdene Special School at Telopea provided schooling and residential care to children aged 10-18 from March 1976. It was run by Anglicare, who described it as being for children and young people with “moderate to severe intellectual disabilities”. It closed in 2010 due to a lack of funding to continue operations. At the time of…

Avona Hostel

Avona Hostel, in Glebe, was set up by the Anglican Home Mission Society in 1947. It was for boys aged 15 to 18 who had appeared before the Children’s Court and were described by the Home Mission Society as ‘neglected, homeless or unwanted.’ The hostel held 25 boys. Avona Hostel closed around 1962. Avona Hostel…

Church Rescue Home

The Church Rescue Home was established in 1885 and run by a committee associated with the Church of England Temperance Society. It opened as a Home for the “rescue” of “intemperate”, “inebriate”, and “fallen” women (‘Church Home for the Intemperate and the Fallen’, published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 September 1884), including teenage girls….