Government reports (Signposts 2004, pp.395-398) show that Oceanview Hostel has been used for a range of purposes. Until 1977, Oceanview was one of a number of education and employment hostels that were established in the metropolitan area for Aboriginal children from country areas who came to Perth for school or work.
The hostel building, at 6 Beach Road in Cottesloe (sometimes known as Mosman Park), was originally owned by the Department of Native Welfare but in 1972 came under the administration of the Department for Community Welfare (DCW).
Oceanview opened on 15 March 1970 under the management of the male Catholic religious order, the Society of the Catholic Apostolates, better known as Pallottines. They ran the hostel until 1972 and probably relinquished it when the DCW took over administration. When Wilson and Robinson surveyed the hostel in 1971 (Signposts p.396), they wrote that the Pallottines preferred to select boys for admission and not be obliged to take referrals from government authorities. Nor did they expect to pay for the maintenance of the building, seeing that as the government's responsibility. There had been a lengthy process of negotiation with the Department of Native Welfare before the Pallottines agreed to manage Oceanview and they were probably reluctant to have to renegotiate with the DCW.
It is likely that the DCW and subsequent child welfare authorities continued to run Oceanview as a hostel for Aboriginal students, but no published reports of this period are readily available.
By 1977 (p.397), Oceanview was one of a number of hostels being administered by the DCW's 'assessment centre', Bridgewater. At that time, Oceanview housed up to seven girls and five boys, all teenagers attending high school and was described as an 'annexe' of Bridgewater. In 1979, Oceanview had a similar population, with the annual report of that year explaining that the young people were housed at Oceanview until they could be sent to a more permanent placement.
In 1984, Oceanview became what the DCW called a 'community support hostel', with an emphasis on children who were facing 'varied and complex' challenges.
From 1987, Oceanview admitted children who had been arrested or who were on remand from the Children's Court.
In 1989 (p.325), the McCall Centre's residential unit relocated to the Oceanview Hostel on Beach Road in Cottesloe. Children stayed on average, 6 weeks. The residential program at Oceanview apparently closed in 1995 as it was reported (p.398) that the Beach Road property was being used as an 'educational facility' in that year.
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Last updated:
21 October 2022
Cite this: http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/wa/WE00168
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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