The Ballarat Industrial School was the only institution in Victoria mentioned by the Royal Commission on Industrial and Reformatory Schools as having had a 'satisfactory realization of the objects for which industrial schools should be founded'. Despite this, the Commission called for the industrial school system to be abandoned, in favour of the boarding out system.
The Ballarat Industrial School housed 215 girls in 1872, according to the report of the Royal Commission on Industrial and Reformatory Schools.
In 1879, the Industrial School closed, and became a reformatory for boys. This reformatory closed in 1893 and the building then housed a 'lunatic asylum'.
On the closure of the reformatory, the majority of the boys were accommodated at Mr Wiseman's Farm at Lilydale, the Salvation Army Home at Heidelberg and Mr Groom's Excelsior Homes at Brighton.
We do not currently have any photographs linked to this entry. If you know of any additional photographs, please contact us.
The Find & Connect Support Service can help people who lived in orphanages and children's institutions look for their records.
Last updated:
27 July 2023
Cite this: http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000317
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License