Mardon Receiving Home

Mardon Receiving Home, run by the government, opened in Devonport in the late 1960s. It provided temporary accommodation to children who were wards of state or supervised in other ways by the Social Welfare Department. In the early 1980s, it became Mardon Family Group Home.

The Home provided accommodation for new wards of the state or children on remand from the courts until the Department found a more permanent placement for them. It also took in children requiring temporary accommodation under the Domestic Service Assistance Act and in transit between homes.

A married woman, known as a Receiving Home Keeper, managed Mardon with the assistance of her husband, who was in paid employment outside the Home. In return, they received free accommodation.

The Department changed the name in the early 1980s to Mardon Family Group Home apparently to emphasise its domestic environment and the fact that some children stayed in the home longer if they got on well with the Receiving Home Keeper.