Archives



Home of Hope for Destitute Children

The Home of Hope for Destitute Children, Collingwood was established by Charles M. Cherbury in 1880. It housed about 45 children at a time. From 1890, the Home also operated a ‘sanatorium’ in Ocean Grove, where children went for regular ‘holidays’. Both properties were sold in the 1920s, and Home of Hope closed in around…

Presbyterian Sisterhood Home

The Presbyterian Sisterhood established a maternity Home in North Fitzroy in 1909. Previously, it had run a refuge in Warrnambool, in western Victoria. The Presbyterian Sisterhood Home housed single mothers and their babies. In 1953, the Mary Dickens Hospital Wing, a small maternity hospital, was added to the Home. The Home operated until around 1978….

Presbyterian Sisterhood

The Presbyterian Sisterhood began in Warrnambool in western Victoria. It was established by the Rev. Donald A. Cameron, who was Director of Home Missions within the Presbyterian Church of Victoria. The aim of the Presbyterian Sisterhood was ‘to rescue and help women in distress’ (Argus, 1908). From around 1901, the Sisterhood ran a refuge in…

The Palms

The Palms was a hostel in Hawthorn, run by the Burwood Boys’ Home. It was for boys who had completed their schooling. It was closed and sold in 1959.

Heathfield Homes Reformatory School for Protestant Boys

The Heathfield Homes Reformatory School for Protestant Boys, Apollo Bay, was opened on the 4 July 1905 at Apollo Bay and run under the auspices of the Church of England. Boys sent to the Reformatory were trained in farm work. The School closed on 29 October 1915. The Heathfield Reformatory was opened on 4 July…

Committee of Management of the Ballarat District Orphan Asylum

The Ballarat District Orphan Asylum was run by a non-denominational Committee of Management, comprising a President, two Vice-Presidents, five Trustees, a Treasurer and a Committee of Management of sixteen members. Each year it would meet to present the annual report and balance sheet, and to hold elections for officers. A House Committee of five people…

George Street Children’s Home

The George Street Children’s Home was established in 1916 and run by the Ballarat Town and City Mission. The Town and City Mission Visitor of 4 August 1916 appealed for more furniture to be donated to help the children at George Street settle in, and “make the place something like it ought to be”. In September 1916…

Peninsula Family Services

Peninsula Family Services was established in 1980 by the Mission of St James and St John. The Andrew Kerr Memorial Home had been closed in 1978, with its residents being moved to family group homes in the Mornington Peninsula region. Peninsula Family Services was first located above a coffee shop in Main Street, Mornington. In…

Seaside Garden Home for Boys

The Seaside Garden Home for Boys was established in around 1921 in Newhaven, on Phillip Island and run by non-denominational committee of management. When the Seaside Garden Home opened in around 1921, it was an approved ‘institution to whose care neglected children may be committed’, under the terms of the Children’s Welfare Act 1915. In…

The Try Society

The Try Society came into being in the early 1880s, when William Mark Foster and William Groom formed a number of ‘Try Excelsior’ groups in different suburbs around Melbourne. The clubs established by the Try Boys’ Societies aimed to lead boys away from the path that led to ‘larrikinism’. The Try Society emerged as a…