Bethcar Children's Home

Bethcar Children’s Home was a state-run foster care facility, located near Brewarrina. Bethcar was established in 1969, and was run by the Department of Youth and Community Services (which had assumed responsibility for Aboriginal children in 1969). In 1986 Bethcar moved from Brewarrina to Orange. Bethcar closed in 1989.

In his poem “Mission Breed”, David Nolan remembered his time as a resident of Bethcar:

With baggy pants around my waist
From Bourke they took me far
Away from all I knew and loved,
To a kids home called Bethcar

100 kay north-east of Bourke
‘Bout seven mile out of Bre
Were 30 odd lil’ Koori kids,
They all looked just like me

In 1978, Bethcar was described in the NSW Legislative Assembly as a “special aboriginal service”, caring for “24 disadvantaged aboriginal children”.

In the 1970s, Bethcar Children’s Home was run by husband and wife Bert and Edith Gordon. Their son-in-law took over management of Bethcar in the 1980s (he was later jailed for two aggravated sexual assaults committed at the Home).

Fifteen former residents of Bethcar brought civil proceedings against the NSW government between 2008 and 2013, for sexual and physical abuse committed by carers at Bethcar.

Bethcan Children’s Home was investigated by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Case Study 19: Bethcar Children’s Home.