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Public Education Amendment Act 1905, Western Australia

The Public Education Amendment Act 1905 (5 Edw. VII No. 6) defined an ‘habitual truant’ as a child who was ‘constantly and habitually absent from school’ (s.3). The parents of those children accused of truancy could be brought before the court to ‘show cause why such child should not be sent to an industrial school’….

Public Education Act 1899, Western Australia

The Public Education Act 1899 (s.9) (63 Vict. No. 3) appointed officers to ‘accost in the streets or other public places’ children ‘of school age who are apparently not in attendance at school’. Those children accused of truancy and their parents could then be brought before the courts and children who were found to be…

Industrial Schools Act 1874 Amendment Act 1877, Western Australia

The Industrial Schools Act 1874 Amendment Act 1877 amended the Industrial Schools Act 1874. It stopped children who were voluntarily placed in an industrial school from coming under the guardianship of the manager of that institution until they had been there for at least one year (s.2). The manager’s power to apprentice children without their…

Industrial Schools Act Amendment Act 1882, Western Australia

The Industrial Schools Act Amendment Act 1882 (1882/020) added the Rottnest Island Reformatory to the schedule of institutions governed by the Industrial Schools Act 1874. Both Acts were repealed by the State Children Act 1907. The Industrial Schools Act Amendment Act 1882 amended the Industrial Schools Act 1874 by adding the Rottnest Island Reformatory to…

Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act 1893, Western Australia

The Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act 1893(1893/005) amended the Industrial Schools Act 1874. It classified children (‘inmates’) into two types: those children deemed ‘neglected’ or in need of protection and those children who had been convicted of offences and were therefore ‘juvenile offenders’. The juvenile offenders were sentenced to a reformatory school and the other…

Country High School Hostels Ex-Gratia Scheme, Western Australia

The Country High School Hostels Ex-Gratia Scheme was established in 2012, following the Special Inquiry into St Andrew’s Hostel, the Government of Western Australia established the ‘Country High School Hostels Ex Gratia Scheme’, administered by the Department for Communities: This Scheme has been established to provide ex gratia payments to eligible applicants who were subjected…

Files – Department of Aborigines and Fisheries

Files – Department of Aborigines and Fisheries contains both inward and outward correspondence of the Department, filed by subject. Subjects the files deal with include missions, children’s homes, institutions, the removal of children from families and communities, lock hospitals, movement and employment of Aboriginal people, requests for permission for marriage, contracts and permits, exemptions from…

Correspondence Files, Colonial Secretary’s Office, Chief Secretary’s Department

Correspondence Files comprises the main file series for the Colonial Secretary’s Office/Chief Secretary’s Department for the post-1883 period. The correspondence files deal with all functions the office had oversight or control of. Records from the Colonial Secretary’s Office contain information about out of home care in Western Australia, as well as a range of other…

Administration Files – South West District Office [annual single number sequence]

Administration and personal/welfare files of the South West District Office (also known as the Southern District office) of the Department of Native Affairs and the Department of Native Welfare. The files are concerned with education, health, housing, employment, welfare, missions and reserves. This series includes records relating to the East Perth Girls’ Home, Mogumber, and…

Boulder Rescue Home

Run by The Salvation Army, the Boulder Rescue Home provided an alternative to gaol or an industrial school for girls and young women who were charged by the Police or Children’s Courts from 1904 to around 1914. Children charged with neglect, vulnerable young women and people committed for offences all seem to have been taken…