King Edward Home

King Edward Home was established at Newcastle by the Child Welfare Department around 1930. It was a home for 28 girls aged from babyhood to 18 years. Some of the girls went on to Lynwood Hall, and some entered foster care. King Edward Home closed after February 1989.

King Edward Home was established by the Child Welfare Department (later known as the Department of Community Services). It was probably established in the period between the two World Wars.

Donald McLean, who reviewed the home in 1955, said that it was for ‘girls who have not proved amenable to foster placement or have traits which make them unsuitable for foster placement.’ His take on the home was very positive, but made it clear that the home was for girls who were deprived and, sometimes, disturbed by their lives thus far, and that many suffered yearnings for their natural family. McLean noted that many of the girls achieved at high school while others went on to Lynwood Hall, and some went on to stable foster care placements.

We have not been able to pinpoint the closure date of King Edward Home. A former resident of the Home contacted the Find & Connect web resource in May 2014 to advise that she had, at age twelve, lived at the Home from January to December 1974 and that it ran for at least a year after that, with house parents in charge. Another former resident contact Find & Connect web resource in March 2019 to advise that she had lived at the Home from 1982 until 1985. In 2024, we were advised by a record holder that a former resident was transferred from the Home in February 1989.