The Bungalow

The establishment of the Bungalow in Alice Springs in 1913 initiated the forcible removal of Aboriginal children in Central Australia under the Aboriginals Ordinance 1911. At this time, the NT government policy was to “breed out the colour” (Knightley 2001), in part through the forced assimilation of Aboriginal children who were believed to have white parentage. 

Ostensibly developed as a home to allow white passing Aboriginal children to gain an education, it resulted in the forced removal of children in order to gain funding for the establishment of a school in the town, which provided a higher level of education to the town’s white children. The Bungalow began in Mparntwe (Alice Springs, known as Stuart at the time) and moved twice, first to Jay Creek and finally to the Old Telegraph Station, on the Alice Springs Aboriginal Reserve.

Conditions at the Bungalow were very poor – there were no beds, little food, and a lack of water. The Bungalow was situated behind the Stuart Hotel and across the road from the police station, which housed the school. At its establishment, all but two of the Aboriginal students lived there. Aboriginal women, at least some of whom were searching for their children, provided what food they could. They were often prevented from seeing their children by the authorities, and hunger remained rife in the institution.

The Bungalow was also known as the Half-Caste Home. Some records and reports, including the Bringing Them Home report, refer to the institution as the Bungalow up until its move to the Alice Springs Aboriginal Reserve.

In 1913, there were only 10 white children in Alice Springs- half the number required to access funding to establish a school. In an attempt to prevent his wife and children leaving the town, Sergeant Stott, the local policeman and Sub-Protector of Aborigines made a number of attempts to secure funding, eventually succeeding with the assistance of the Administrator, who believed there were enough light-skinned children (believed to have European parentage) in need of an education to campaign on behalf of Stott. The Aboriginals Ordinance 1911 allowed children with only one Aboriginal parent to be forcibly removed and assimilated, ensuring that they could be controlled, including compulsory school attendance- “the school was for the white children and the Aboriginal children’s whiteness was for the school” (Calabria 2022) 

A small salary was provided for a woman (cheaper to employ than a man) to teach the children, supplemented by the white community in the town. With funding and a teacher, (Ida Standley) secured, there was still no way to contain the Aboriginal children upon whom funding was contingent. At this time, an Arabana woman, Topsy Smith, heavily pregnant with her seventh child, lost her husband, (a Welsh Miner), in Arltunga. Stott had her removed by the local police, and interred first in a tent, and then in the tin sheds that became the Bungalow, to include her children as numbers for the school and to care for children stolen from surrounding areas. Three tin sheds were erected for the purpose of housing her, her children, and Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their mothers.

Anecdotally, the Bungalow was developed to provide housing for Smith and her family by Stott as an act of charity. However her daughter stated that Smith intended to move back to her family after her husband’s death, and had the means to do so, including the significant asset of a herd of goats, which were confiscated on her internment at the Bungalow (Traynor, 2016).

Education of the children was unequal, with white children receiving lessons for four hours in the morning, and Aboriginal children only for 1.5 hours in the afternoon.  “The segregated education that would ultimately emerge out of the Bungalow co-opted the Aboriginal children into settler society as a semi-skilled underclass. The… [children from the Bungalow] were forced to scrub down their desks at the end of the day, to make them ready for the white children the next morning… the school… interpellated the Aboriginal children into the labour force in ways designed to subordinate them to white pastoralists.”. (Calabria 2022)

Notably, the white community that supplemented the teacher’s wage stopped supporting the school, in part due to the fact that Aboriginal children were also educated there. To make up the shortfall, Stott applied for additional funding to remove more children from their family and culture to the Bungalow in order to secure an increase in salary for the teacher to also act as matron. This increase in funding established the practice of removing Aboriginal children from their families in Central Australia (Bringing them Home; Calabria 2022). Topsy Smith was never paid for her work. Likewise, Ida Standley was recognised with an MBE for her work at the Bungalow, whilst Topsy Smith remained unrecognised.

Conditions at the Bungalow were appalling, despite the best attempts of the staff. Children were forced to sleep together on the floor, each having only one blanket. Bar staff from the Stuart Hotel gave children scraps meant for the chickens. Water had to be carried to the tin sheds from a distant well. There was no way of locking the doors, making the children vulnerable to abuse, particularly from men who had been drinking at the hotel. Mrs Smith was known to seek Stott for assistance in keeping the children safe overnight from drunk men (History of the Bungalow 1914-1929′, File No.1, National Archives of Australia, A1/15, 1927/2982). 

A terrible drought from 1924 to 1929 meant that Aboriginal people could be shot on site when foraging for food, making their lives even more precarious, and further limiting their ability to provide food for the children.

“There’s where food was scarce again. Hardly anything … night time we used to cry with hunger, y’know, lice, no food. And we used to go out there to the town dump … we had to come and scrounge at the dump, y’know, eating old bread and smashing tomato sauce bottles and licking them. Half of the time our food we got from the rubbish dump. Always hungry there.” (Confidential evidence 549, Northern Territory in Bringing them Home).

 By 1924 the institution was described by witnesses as ‘a scandal’ and ‘a place of squalid horror’ (Ellis, 1924). Around 50 children of all ages were separated into two iron sheds based on gender, forced to share a single toilet, and without a bathroom. Visitors to the Bungalow, including journalists, had by this time become increasingly critical of conditions in the sheds, forcing the government to look for alternative accommodation. A planned influx of railway workers, who authorities were concerned posed too great a risk to the girls finally provided enough incentive to move.

In 1928, 45 children lived at the Bungalow. The 26 boys, 19 girls and three Aboriginal women walked to Jay Creek, 47 kilometres west of Alice Springs, in December of that year. Conditions here were no better. All the children shared a windowless, unlined room about 7 by 15 metres. The floor the children had to sleep on was made of a rough cement of burnt lime and sand. They were allocated two blankets each, there were only 20 towels, and they had to share six bowls for food. There was no entertainment for the children – no toys or games. Water was even more difficult to access than it had been in the previous location.

In 1929, both Standley and Smith left the Bungalow, and a married couple replaced them, acting as Superintendent and Matron. A memo from the Chief Protector of Aborigines to the new matron provides an example of how genocidal policies were enacted against Aboriginal people through the forced removal of light-skinned children, and their attempted assimilation:

“In arranging the employment of Half-Caste females the Matron shall endeavour to select employers, who will take a personal interest in the moral and physical welfare of the employee and who will so order their relations to the employee as to promote the latter’s elevation to white standards of morality and general outlook.

“No Aboriginal influence can be permitted to bear upon the inmates of the Half-Caste Home and the Matron is responsible for ensuring that children in the Institution have no association with Aboriginals.”
Memo from Cecil Cook, Chief Protector of Aborigines, ‘Duties of Matron, Half Caste Institution, Alice Springs’, National Archives of Australia, A1/15, 1935/643

In 1932, the Bungalow moved again, this time to the old Alice Springs Telegraph Station at Temple Bar, within the Alice Springs Aboriginal reserve. These reserves reflected the protectionist policies of the time, segregating and controlling Aboriginal people who were considered part of a “dying race”, while assimilating those believed to have white parentage based on the colonial, racist blood quantum regulations.

The Old Telegraph Station was an improvement to the previous locations, including, for the first time, beds and mattresses for the children, and bathrooms and flushing toilets, however the facility soon became overcrowded. In 1933, 33 boys who had been housed at the Pine Creek Home after being forcibly removed from their communities were moved to the Bungalow. By 1935 the institution accommodated 132 children. By 1938, the Northern Territory Government Secretary considered the place “long overdue for demolition” (NT Gov Secretary, 1938).

In 1934, one of the girls managed to get a letter the Deputy Administrator, accusing the superintendent of rape. He was removed immediately, and found guilty of multiple offences after testimony from another five girls. Hetty Perkins, an Arrente elder who worked at the institution also gave evidence at the trial. He served 30 days in prison and was replaced as supervisor.

In 1942, due to World War 2, the children were evacuated and the institution closed. The majority of the children were sent south to Mulgoa in New South Wales and to Balaklava in South Australia.