Young Christian Workers' Movement Hostel (1948 - 1955)

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The Young Christian Workers' Movement's plan was for young men to live at the Hostel in Hawthorn for a period of around 3 months, with a view to them finding employment and private accommodation.

The Hostel received fewer young men than the YCW had planned, and it ran at a loss. Fr Lombard wrote to the Commonwealth government in May 1951 about the Hostel's financial difficulties:

'I visited Britain to organise a scheme for obtaining nominations… a total of 49 nominated British migrants have arrived. Already 15 boys have left the hostel, five are working with farmers; nine apprenticed; nine (others) working with the PMG; ten are in private homes in the suburbs. However, the financial burden is a heavy one.'

At the end of 1952, the Children's Welfare Department reported that the hostel had received 124 child migrants. In December 1952, there were 49 boys in residence.

By the mid 1950s, the YCW had withdrawn from youth migration schemes. The Hawthorn hostel closed in 1955..