Bridgewater Admissions Register

The Bridgewater Admissions Registers are the admission registers of the Bridgewater Care and Assessment Centre. They are held by Child Protection and Family Support (CPFS). It was the practice of the Bridgewater Centre to record each child’s name when they were admitted to the Home, and the date when they left. Unfortunately, the admission registers do not record all details for all children through all years of the Home’s operation. However, they do give information about admissions for a very large number of children who came into ‘care’ in WA. There are two admission registers, covering the years from 1969 to 1983.

Access Conditions

Access to these records is restricted and confidentiality is protected by CPFS. If you believe the Department may hold records about you, or about a family member, you are encouraged to apply. Access is governed by the Freedom of Information Act 1992.

Records

The two volumes of Bridgewater admission registers are:

• Vol 1 1969 – 1977
• Vol 2 1978 – 1983

The admission registers contain columns for information to be recorded about each child. That information could be passed along to the foster carer or Children’s Home so that they had some background information about why the child had come into care.

However, this information was not recorded for most of the entries in these registers. In many cases, only a child’s name and date of admission were recorded. In some cases the following details were recorded:

• Name of the child
• Date of admission
• Date of birth
• Religion
• Date of discharge
• Where the child went to after leaving Bridgewater and additional remarks, if any.

In 2001, the Department took all the information from the Bridgewater admission registers and created an electronic index. This is used to match the children on the admission registers with other Departmental files held.