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New South Wales - Archival Collection

Records of Girls' Industrial and Training Schools, State Archives NSW (1867 - 1983)

From
1867
To
1983
Website
https://search.records.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/1e5kcq1/ORGANISATIONS1000580
Reference No
AGY-460
Legal Status
State Records Authority of New South Wales Agency Number

These records were created by the Industrial and Training Schools for Girls in New South Wales, namely Newcastle Industrial School (1867-1871), Biloela Industrial School (1871-1887), Parramatta Girls Industrial School (1887-1912), Parramatta Girls Training Home (1912-1946), Parramatta Girls Training School (1946-1974), and Kamballa (1974-1983). The records contain information about girls admitted to these homes, and cover various aspects of life at the institutions. Some records also contain information about girls sent to other homes/institutions, such Hay Institution for Girls, Myee, and Ormond, the Parramatta School annexe. It may also contain information about boys at Taldree, which was co-located with Kamballa. They include admission and discharge registers, medical and dental records, correspondence files, staff daily diaries/log books, records of absconders, isolation (punishment) books, resident payment books, visitor books, etc. Many of the records span longer time frames and relate to more than one institution.

Details

Access Conditions

In New South Wales, records relating to individuals, such as case files and correspondence are closed to public access for 100 years. Records such as registers and indexes are closed to public access for 80 years.

More recent records are closed to protect personal privacy. People wishing to access records about themselves will need to submit a GIPA (Government Information Public Access) form to the Department of Communities and Justice Open Government, Information and Privacy unit.

Records in this collection that are older than 80/100 years are open to the public, and can be accessed by contacting Museums of History NSW (State Archives).

Many of the earlier records in this collection have been included in the Child Care and Protection Index 1817-1942, which is accessible online and contains the names of children, the institution they were sent to, and sometimes the names of their parents/guardians and siblings.

Records

The records series listed below have been arranged by the institution/s that created them. Some series span a wider date range and were used by more than one institution, and so have been listed multiple times under different headings.

For more information about a particular record, click the link in its title to read the Museums of History NSW (State Archives) description. Not all records listed here have been fully processed at the time of writing (May 2023), and as such further information may not be available for all records.

Newcastle Industrial School for Females (1867 - 1871)

Biloela Industrial School, Cockatoo Island (1871 - 1887)

Parramatta Girls Industrial School (1887 - 1912)

Parramatta Girls Training Home (1912 - 1946)

Parramatta Girls Training School (1946 - 1974)

Kamballa (1974 - 1983)

Related Organisations

Publications

Books

Online Resources

Sources used to compile this entry: Parry, Naomi, 'Such a longing': black and white children in welfare in New South Wales and Tasmania, 1880-1940, Department of History, University of New South Wales, 2007, 361 pp, http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/40786; Thinee, Kristy and Bradford, Tracy, Connecting Kin: Guide to Records, A guide to help people separated from their families search for their records [completed in 1998], New South Wales Department of Community Services, Sydney, New South Wales, 1998, https://clan.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/connectkin_guide.pdf.

Prepared by: Constance Thurley-Hart