St Saviour's Children's Home

St Saviour’s Children’s Home was established in 1929 in the Cathedral Parish of St Saviour’s Goulburn, operated initially by the Sisters of the Holy Cross. In 1980, St Saviour’s Neighbourhood Centre was established. Substitute care continued in the St Saviour’s Children’s Home on a reduced scale until 1982 when the home closed.

The Cathedral Parish of St Saviour’s Goulburn, part of the Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn, established a children’s home in 1929. The home was first operated by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, an Anglican order who came from Nyngan, New South Wales. In 1933 the Sisters of the Community of the Holy Name, who were headquartered in Melbourne, took over the Goulburn Home.

The home in Goulburn began in a large house in Verner Street and grew to the extent that the Sisters approached the Bishop seeking larger accommodation. The home adjoining Bishopthorpe in Cowper Street was given to the Church by the Executors of the late Laura G. Bell and the architect Mr H.C. Manfred reconstructed and adapted it as a Home for 40 children.

When the Bishop left Bishopthorpe to move to Canberra the Sisters of the Community of the Holy Name were able to expand to that property and, with donations and bequests, acquire neighbouring properties. They ran a number of institutions, including a home for babies and a hostel for girls needing accommodation to attend secondary school.

In 1969 the Sisters of the Community of the Holy Name suggested to the Diocese that there were other and better ways to care for children. This resulted in a committee being formed to develop a proposal for a family group home to be built in Wagga Wagga. The Sisters withdrew from Goulburn and were replaced with house parents. This transition led to increased demands being placed on the resources of the Diocese, as it assumed the roles and responsibilities previously fulfilled by the Sisters.

In the mid-1970s, the church reviewed its child care work and identified the need for services aimed at supporting the family unit and preventing the placement of children in residential children’s homes. As a result, St Saviour’s Neighbourhood Centre was developed.