Weroona Home (1946 - 1984)

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Weroona opened as temporary accommodation for preschool-aged children in 1946. From 1948 it housed 30 boys, aged from seven to 15 years of age. Most of the residents could not get foster placements because of a shortage of foster homes for their age group.

Weroona was destroyed by bushfire in November 1957, which temporarily increased accommodation pressure at many other children's homes. A replacement building was opened by the Minister for Child Welfare on 7 March 1959, according to the 1959 Annual Report of the Child Welfare Department, with space for 'thirty school age boys' of 8 to 12 years, 'of good intelligence'.

According to the 1964 Annual Report:

'Weroona is an establishment set in fine mountain scenery at Woodford. It caters for 30 boys of school age and it has been possible to build up a group of boys who on the whole are at rather better levels of intelligence and stability than the majority of male wards of corresponding age.

A school for boys of primary standard in education is set in the grounds and High School boys go out to Katoomba. One boy this year gained a place at the selective James Ruse Agricultural High School.'

By 1970, the internal school had closed down, and a 1970 publication of the Child Welfare Department claimed that 'the majority of these boys would be immediately placeable if there were sufficient foster homes available'.