Brisbane Industrial Home (1883 - 1922)

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The Brisbane Industrial Home was originally situated at Clydesdale House in Fortitude Valley. It operated as a rescue home for young women and girls and was run by a committee of private citizens. The home opened 18 July 1883.

The Home accommodated 'fallen' women who were deemed to have 'lost their good reputation and fallen from the grace of God'. While at the home many girls worked in the laundry, which generated income for the institution. Other girls were sent out to domestic service. Lady Jeanie Lucinda Musgrave, wife of the then Governor of Queensland, was patroness of the home.

An article in the Queensland Figaro and Punch on 26 September 1885, p. 31, describes the Brisbane Industrial Home:

'This is an institution which has for its object the rescue of the erring, by giving shelter, relief and Christian sympathy and council to fallen and friendless women, who have resolved to lead a new life; to train such as need it to habits of industry, and in due time restore them to their friends, or procure them suitable employment, and so help them to return to the path of virtue and usefulness. '

The Home moved premises to Normanby, on 24 January 1887 and closed around 1922. It then became an aged people's home run by the Brisbane Church Federation.