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Aboriginal Youth Support Service

The Aboriginal Youth Support Service was a state-run youth welfare service, established in around 1973-74 in Brunswick.

Melbourne Youth Justice Centre

The Melbourne Youth Justice Centre is a high security centre commissioned by the state government in 1993. It is located in the Parkville Youth Justice Precinct, and replaced the Turana Youth Training Centre. The Justice Centre is a custodial facility for males aged 15 to approximately 18, who have been sentenced to a Youth Justice…

Nunawading Youth Residential Centre

The Nunawading Youth Residential Centre was established in 1991, on the former site of Winlaton. It accommodated young people from ten and fourteen years who had been sentenced to detention. It also provided youth training centre programs. According to the Finding Records website, Nunawading Youth Residential Centre was a large complex with different sections, including:…

Family Group Home Program

The Victorian Children’s Welfare Department began its Family Group Home Program in 1956. At first, each of the Department’s group homes accommodated eight children, under the care of a cottage mother (and often a cottage father too). By 1974 there were 40 Departmental homes housing 209 children in the inner and outer suburbs of Melbourne…

Windermere Child and Family Services

Windermere Child and Family Services takes its name from the location of the Melbourne Orphan Asylum from 1878, in Windermere Crescent, Brighton. Windermere came into being in the wake of changes at the Melbourne Orphanage. With the transition from institutional, congregate care to family group homes during the 1960s, the Orphanage became known as the…

National Children’s Bureau of Australia

The National Children’s Bureau dates back to 1971, when it was known as the Child and Family Welfare Council of Australia, a national peak body. In 1986, it was incorporated as the Children’s Bureau of Australia. From 1990, supported by Family Action, the National Children’s Bureau of Australia was a leading children’s advocacy and research…

Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care

The Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC), the national non government peak body in Australia representing the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families, was established in 1981.

Church of England Boys’ Society

The first branch of the Church of England Boys’ Society (CEBS) in Australia was established in around 1914 in Kew, Victoria. It was initially under the guidance of the Church of England Men’s Society. CEBS played a role in a number of children’s institutions in Victoria, sometimes delivering services in conjunction with St John’s Homes…

Franciscan Friars

The Franciscan Friars arrived in Victoria in 1839 and built two of the colony’s first churches. This Catholic Order, which dates back to Italy in 1209, has been working in Australia almost since the time of first European contact. In Victoria, the Franciscans ran the Morning Star Boys’ Home and Padua Hall.

Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines, State Government of Victoria

The Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines was established in 1869, under the provisions of the Aborigines Protection Act 1869. Previously, the Central Board Appointed to Watch Over the Interests of Aborigines had been operating in Victoria since 1860. The Board, which ran missions and reserve stations in Victoria, had significant statutory power over…