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Access Conditions
Email the archivist to apply for access to records about someone who spent time in a Red Cross children's Home.
All applications are treated as requests for access to personal information under the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988.
Records
The Australian Red Cross has a webpage with some details of the records it holds relating to children's Homes. Unfortunately few records remain about individual children who spent time in Red Cross children's Homes. There are however some administrative records (such as minute books, correspondence and administrative files) and photographs, relating to its children's Homes around Australia.
The Red Cross holds a series of admission index cards relating to some of its Homes in New South Wales, for the period from the early 1950s up to the 2000s.
The Red Cross website provides these details about the records relating to these Homes in its custody:
NSW:
Berida Junior Red Cross Home, Bowral: "A few photographs of the house and grounds only".
Eleanor Mackinnon Memorial Home, Cronulla: "Patchy client records".
Glen Mervyn Junior Red Cross Home, Randwick: "Patchy records to 1993. Some staff records and fuller records for children."
WA:
Lady Lawley Cottage by the Sea: "Recent records for children available".
Please note that there are records about Red Cross Children's Homes held by other institutions.
The State Library of South Australia has records relating to Homes in that state.
In 2014, the Australian Red Cross made a Centenary Gift to the Nation, donating records to the University of Melbourne Archives. Another collection of records was deposited at the State Library of New South Wales, including records relating to Red Cross children's Homes in NSW.
The Red Cross transferred the 'Australian Red Cross Heritage Collection' (1914-2014) to the University of Melbourne Archives in 2013. This collection contains records from the National Office and Victorian Division of the Australian Red Cross Society.
