• Organisation

Fitzroy Crossing Hostel

Details

The Fitzroy Crossing Hostel was run by the United Aborigines Mission from around 1956. By 1971 there were 80 primary school age Aboriginal children at the hostel. It was run by the Department for Community Welfare from 1972 until 1976 when it was replaced by the Fitzroy Crossing Group Homes (Burawa Hostel).

The Fitzroy Crossing Hostel was established by the United Aborigines Mission (UAM) possibly in 1956 in the Fitzroy Crossing township. It is likely that the first students were from the UAM’s Fitzroy Crossing Mission.

By 1971, there were 80 primary school age children at the hostel.

In 1972, the UAM decided to hand the hostel over to the Department for Community Welfare and in 1976 it was replaced by the Fitzroy Crossing Group Homes (Burawa Hostel). The DCW reported at the time that this was to enable smaller groups of children to live with Aboriginal house parents.

In 2008, as part of a history of the Mowanjum community, Penny Bidd remembered being flown by plane to the UAM hostel at Fitzroy Crossing and only being allowed to see her family ‘for two weeks each year’.

  • From

    1956?

  • To

    1976

Locations

  • 1956? - 1976

    Fitzroy Crossing Hostel was located at Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia (Building State unknown)

Chronology

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