Earlsferry

Earlsferry was established for ten girls, aged 11 to 18, from the Claremont Mental Hospital who had cognitive disabilities. Earlsferry, with Fairholme, made up the Nathaniel Harper Homes, which were owned and run by the government of Western Australia, and located on opposite sides of the Swan River. In 1988, ownership passed to the Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons. In April 1989, when Earlsferry was damaged by a fire due to ‘misadventure’, residents were relocated and the property sold. 

Earlsferry  was opened by the Minister for Health, Dame Florence Cardell Oliver, on 27 September 1952.

Nathaniel Harper, who had a son with Down’s Syndrome, donated money to the Mental Hospitals Department in order to improve service provision to children with cognitive disabilities., marking the beginning of a change in the way these services were delivered. 

Prior to Harper’s philanthropy, children with cognitive disabilities were engaged in basic industrial work, whereas children at the Harper homes undertook a special education program facilitated by the Education Department. The Homes were run by nursing staff, with visits from Claremont Mental Hospital psychologists. 

The young people and adults at Nathaniel Harper Homes were also engaged in work, taking some of the overflow from the industrial rehabilitation workshop at Claremont Mental Hospital making glass pipettes and cleaned and re-assembled bottle-tops.

When the government purchased Earslferry, a number of renovations were made. These included adding a laundry, removing the outhouses and building a cottage for the Matron in what had been the orchard. Security wire mesh fences were put up around the boundary, a large tree and rose beds were removed and the driveway was bitumised and kerbed.

By the 1980s, Fairholme and Earlsferry were better known as separate hostels rather than collectively as the Nathaniel Harper Homes. Earlsferry continues as a private home.