Marillac House

Marillac House in Brighton East was run by the Daughters of Charity from 1943. It included a school, and accommodated mostly girls aged 10 to 16, and some boys in its early years, with intellectual disabilities, or learning and social problems. In 2009, Marillac House continues to provide programs and services to people with a disability.

Marillac House was situated in a mansion known as Landcox House, at 3 Mavis Avenue, Brighton East.

In 1957 Marillac House was designated as a ‘special school’ by the Victorian government. At that time it had up to 80 girls, aged between 5 and 18. It was Victoria’s only privately-operated residential accommodation for girls with an intellectual disability at that time.

A number of people who made submissions to the Senate’s inquiry into institutional care in 2003-2004 described having been incorrectly diagnosed as having an intellectual disability. One woman with vision impairment told of how she was given an IQ test for a fully sighted person, failed, and was placed at Marillac House on account of being “mentally retarded”. She described inadequate staffing at the institution – around 7 nuns to look after around 100 children – and being put to work bathing and dressing the other children, at the age of 10. She stated that a small group of “able girls” had to work on domestic cleaning at Marillac House, scrubbing and polishing floors, cleaning toilets and baths, making beds, darning socks and working in the kitchen. She also worked to raise funds for the institution, selling buttons at Flinders Street Station and going door knocking around Brighton and surrounding suburbs (submission 166).

According to the ‘Finding Records’ website, by the late 1960s, Marillac House accommodated 16 wards of state who lived in two adjacent family group homes, and 56 other girls who were either weekly boarders, privately placed or housed in dormitories.

In the late 1960s, Marillac House ran 2 hostels in conjunction with the Youth Welfare Division. They were called Maryville (located at 2 Waiora Avenue East Brighton, Maryville Hostel was for girls with employment) and Mandurah (which was a ‘sheltered workshop’ for older girls).

The original Marillac property was auctioned in 1987, and became a Tibetan Buddhist teaching and meditation centre. Marillac continued to provide residential accommodation and outreach services.

In 2017, Marillac Ltd was transferred to St John of God Health Care.