Annesfield

Annesfield, in Albany, was founded as a privately-run residential school for Aboriginal children in 1852 . The purpose of the school was to remove children from their Aboriginal cultural environment and raise them in a Christian environment that conformed with European social standards. It is possible that the first children at Annesfield 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.

Annesfield was run by Mrs Anne Camfield and her husband, who had been employed by the government in various roles in Albany, including as the Government Resident and Postmaster General. It was established with support from Archdeacon Wollaston, who was involved in the running of Annesfield for its first few years. The Home received funding through the Western Australian government, and benefitted from Mr Camfield’s relationship with government officers. Although it was technically a privately-run Home, it was in many ways treated as a de-facto government-run institution.

Children from infancy up to 16 years old lived at Annesfield, though the preference of the Camfields was for younger children to be admitted. Research undertaken by Joan Groves for her thesis The Camfields: “The Comforts of Civilisation” in Early Colonial Western Australia (2006) shows that government officials were tasked with finding children to admit to the Home:

I have been requested by the Resident to procure six Native Girls under four years of age for a school as yet I have only been able to procure three. The Natives do not like parting with their children.

(Letter from J. Phillips, government Inspector of Natives at Albany to the Colonial Secretary, 2 November 1852)

Groves research suggests that children who had been taken to Annesfield from local Aboriginal families were permitted to have some ongoing contact with their family members.

Annesfield had capacity for up to 24 children at a time. Children at Annesfield were taught reading, writing, basic arithmetic, religious instruction, and music. Older girls were trained in housework and nursery duties. Children were ‘indentured’ to the Home for 10 years, and were expected to either marry or take jobs, generally as domestic servants, when they left the (Groves, 2006). Several girls from Annesfield, including noted Aboriginal woman Bessie Flowers/Cameron, travelled to Victoria to work as teachers at Rahmayuck and Ebenezer Missions.

Annesfield closed in 1871. The decision was made to close the school partly due to Mr Camfield’s failing health, partly due to cuts to government spending, and partly due to the belief that an institution in Perth would have more success, particularly in fundraising, than a regional institution at Albany. On it’s closure, the children from Annesfield in were sent to Perth. They were initially placed in temporary accommodation adjoining the Perth Protestant Orphanages, before being transferred to the new Native Institution run by Bishop Hale.