Dr Phyllis Tewsley, Medical Superintendent at Royal Park Depot and Turana from 1948 until her retirement in 1959, was one of the pioneers of the small family group idea for children as an alternative to the established system of caring for them in large institutions. (By 1962 ten separate family group Homes operated in Melbourne. Tewsley was appointed MBE on 1 January 1962 in recognition of her work in child welfare.)
Initially, organisations in Victoria made the transition towards the family group Home model by building smaller 'cottages' on the existing sites of children's Homes. This approach was taken by Methodist Homes for Children, which established cottages where smaller groups of children lived with cottage parents. In 1952, the new Orana homes were built according to this model of a 'village' of cottages on one site.
When the Victorian government established its family group home program in 1956, the Homes were situated in 'ordinary' streets in Melbourne's northern suburbs.
This 'scattered' family group Home model was adopted by Kildonan Homes for Children. The sale of the Kildonan Children's Home in Burwood in 1960 funded the purchase of family group Homes in the eastern suburbs.
We do not currently have any resources linked to this entry, but resources may exist. If you know of any related resources, please contact us.
The Find & Connect Support Service can help people who lived in orphanages and children's institutions look for their records.
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:
16 November 2022
Cite this: http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000350
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