Please contact the Historical Records Department, The Salvation Army:
Postal Address: PO Box 479, Blackburn VIC 3130
Phone: (03) 8878 2404
Email: historicalrecords@salvationarmy.org.au
Website: https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/about-us/governance-policy/historical-records-request/
These records are held by The Salvation Army Australia (2018 - current).
Salvation Army Australia, Records of Homes in the former Southern Territory is a collection of records relating to former residents of Salvation Army institutions in South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. The Salvation Army in these states was known as the Southern Territory from 1921 until 2018. Care Leavers who apply for access to their records may receive some information from case files, admission registers, maintenance books, or visitors’ books. Some photos have also survived. There are name indexes which are searched when a former resident makes an enquiry, but some manual searching is still required.
Care leavers can apply to the Salvation Army for information and records about their time in care.
A two page application form will need to be completed. The form will ask for contact details, personal and family information to assist with a record search and identification. The application requests copies of a drivers licence and birth certificate or 100 points of identification. Those who don’t have enough official documents can ask the Care Leavers of Australasia Network (CLAN) or the Find & Connect Support Service to confirm their identity to the Salvation Army.
Those applying for information about a third party will need consent from that person or the executor of their estate.
Care leavers who apply for access to records may receive some information from case files, admission registers, maintenance books, or visitors books. Some photos have also survived. There are name indexes which are searched when a former resident makes an enquiry, but some manual searching is still required.
Poor record-keeping practices of the past mean that some records were lost or destroyed over time, and others are brief or incomplete. Like many organisations, the Salvation Army kept records for administrative purposes and the records were, regrettably, not written or kept with the needs of adult care leavers in mind.
Those who receive little information may find some value in administrative records. For example, the Salvation Army kept a history book for every children’s home that it ran, though some have not survived. The surviving books contain information about major events at the Home, such as garden parties, rather than information about children. Please note that The Salvation Army Australia Museum in Melbourne has a collection of historical records, memorabilia and photographs relating to many children’s institutions.
In 2013, the Salvation Army Southern Territory provided the Find & Connect web resource with lists, detailing what records they hold about institutions in what was then known as its Southern Territory. This information about records is provided here, in a separate section for each state: South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.
The Salvation Army Heritage Centre, Archives and Museum at Nailsworth in South Australia, formerly held records related to Salvation Army homes in SA. In 2012 this Centre closed and all records related to former residents were transferred to the Salvation Army Australian Southern Territory Territorial Headquarters at Blackburn in Victoria.
This is a list of the records from South Australian institutions:
Salvation Army Boys’ Home, Mount Barker:
Salvation Army Girls’ Home, Fullarton:
Salvation Army Boys’ Home, Kent Town:
Kent Town Boys’ Home History Book, 1932 to 1972. Entries mainly concern visits by members of The Salvation Army and other dignitaries, inspections of the Home and staff movements. Diary includes some mention of boys’ activities including outings and Christmas parties. Outbreaks of illness are also noted, as is the boys’ involvement in the local Salvation Army Corps as junior soldiers. All information is general. Names are mentioned on only two occasions when the death of former residents is recorded.
Barrington Boys’ Home:
Rock Lynn House:
It is possible that some records from this institution may have been destroyed in a laundry fire during the 1960s.
Elim Maternity Hospital:
Maylands Salvation Army Home for Girls
Bayswater
Box Hill
East Kew
Kardinia
The Salvation Army holds Book Records and Miscellaneous Files relating to institutions in Western Australia.
The collection includes admission and discharge records, punishment books, historical records and “miscellaneous incomplete files”. The Salvation Army has advised that these records relate to these Homes in WA: the Salvation Army Boys’ Home and Hollywood Children’s Village in Nedlands; Collie Boys’ Home; the Salvation Army Girls’ Home in Cottesloe; and Seaforth in Gosnells. There are also registers for Hillcrest and its predecessors: the Cornelie Home in Highgate and The Open Door in Fremantle.
Records relating to Western Australian Homes that are held by the Salvation Army Australian Southern Territory Headquarters in Melbourne include: