The Children’s Seaside Hotel was located at Narrabeen from approximately 1937, with a branch at Wentworth Falls opening in 1943. It was privately run by two former teachers as an experiment in residential education. It was for children aged from one month to 15 years of age and offered care from a single day to periods of years. It was used during school vacations and by mothers for respite from young children.
The Children’s Seaside Hotel advertised in the boarding school and college pages of publications like The Farmer and Settler. According to the advertising, it was staffed with trained nurses and students of child psychology. Both the seaside at Narrabeen and mountains in Wentworth Falls were promoted as offering fresh milk and cream and home grown vegetables, with activities in the ‘health-giving surroundings of mountain air’.
Australian actor Jack Thompson spent several years at the Narrabeen Children’s Seaside Hostel as a child, after his mother died and his father, a returned serviceman, was unable to care for him and his brother David. In an interview with Samantha Trenoweth, he recalls:
No child was turned away. There were two kids with Downes Syndrome. A couple had learning difficulties. There were children who had been sent from Indonesia to relatives in Australia who had found they couldn’t look after them. There were children like David and myself who had come from broken homes. During the war, almost every home was broken. And there were day children whose parents were interested in this new form of education.
The method of learning was very Montessori…‘What are you interested in? I’ll tell you what that’s about.’ The school published its own magazine. They had a little printing press. They ground their own wheat, made their own bread. They had cows. The children helped with it all. So what a lucky boy Jack was to be placed in this loving environment. I mean, it wasn’t all beer and skittles. There were kids there for whom life would always be difficult, but boy, did David and I land on our feet.
From
c. 1937
To
1950s
Alternative Names
Lake House
c. 1937 - 1949?
Children's Seaside Hotel located at 400 Pittwater Road, Narrabeen, New South Wales (Building Demolished)
c. 1943 - 1949?
Children's Seaside Hotel had a second location at Wentworth Falls, New South Wales (Building Unknown)