Dalwood Children’s Home, at Seaforth, was a home for mothers and babies set up by the Food for Babies Fund in 1924. In 1931 it began to provide temporary accommodation for children. In 1989 Dalwood stopped operating as a children’s home. Non-residential programs continue on the site, in 2024 it is known as the Dalwood…
Guildford Truant School for Boys was a School for Specific Purposes established by the Department of Education in the property Linnwood in 1917. It opened in 1918 and housed boys who were persistently absent from school and were under sentence from the Children’s Court. The school closed at the end of 1935. In 1936, Linnwood…
St Gabriel’s was established in Castle Hill in 1922 by the Christian Brothers. It was a residential home for boys who had a hearing impairment, aged from 5 to 17 years. St Gabriel’s stopped serving as a residential school in 1973, and became a co-educational day school. In 2014 it was still a school, but…
St Edmund’s School opened in 1951 in Wahroonga and was run by the Christian Brothers. It was a residential school for boys who had a visual impairment, aged from 5 to 17 years. After 1980 the school began to include students who had other sensory impairments and other special needs.
The Roman Catholic Orphan School at Parramatta was established on the 8 March 1844 and run by a committee. On the 31 March 1859, it was taken over by the Good Shepherd Sisters, later known as Sisters of the Good Samaritan. It was Australia’s first purpose built orphanage for Catholic children and received funding from…
Anglewood was established by the Child Welfare Department in 1943 at Burradoo, near Bowral, as a boarding school for boys whose ‘only reason for committal was school truancy’. Boys were detained in the home for up to two years. Some children were transferred from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and placed in this Home. Anglewood…
Masonic Orphan Schools was founded in 1922 at Baulkham Hills (in Sydney’s north west) for the care and education of the children of deceased Freemasons. In 1924 its name was changed to William Thompson Memorial School. In 2012 Find and Connect staff were advised by the United Grand Lodge of the Masons NSW/ACT that all…
The William Thompson Masonic School was founded in 1922 at Baulkham Hills (in Sydney’s north west) for the care and education of the children of deceased Freemasons. It had previously been Masonic Orphan Schools. Different sources give different dates when the school was closed. The site was sold to the Hills Shire Council in December…
Mater Dei School is located at Narellan, near Camden. It is a special school, with a residential programme, that was established by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan in 1957. It was previously the Mater Dei Orphanage. Records of children who have attended Mater Dei School since 1957 are held at the school. In 2011…
The Manly Industrial School and Orphanage was opened in 1881 by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan at Manly. From 1881-1910 it accommodated girls aged two to 18 years and from 1883 to 1891 it also housed boys up to the age of ten. In 1886 it received the remaining children from the Roman Catholic…