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Recently I’ve been working on an article about children’s institutions in Victoria in the early 1950s. This work saw me actually get up from my desk and leave the office to do some research – at Public Record Office Victoria, the State Library of Victoria and at the National Library of Australia in Canberra. These days, there is so much digitised historical material to access via desk-based research that a historian can get lazy … Read More…

Download a PDF version of the Find & Connect Image policy (147kb PDF). Objective Scope Rationale Policy Feedback, takedown and complaints Appendices Review due by: June 30, 2018 Version: 2.0 Policy Steward: Find & Connect web resource Program Manager Approved on: January 30, 2017 Effective date: January 30, 2017 Policy Approver: Program Operational and Research Team (PORT) Status: Published Objective The Find & Connect web resource aims to facilitate access to r

Earlier this month, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) delivered its final report, including 94 ‘calls to action’. Two of these refer to Aboriginal peoples’ ‘inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why, with regard to human rights violations committed against them in the residential schools’. What is this right to know the truth?Read More…

Finding information about a childhood spent in institutional ‘care’ is not easy. Even when records are found and released, decisions affecting individual lives may not be clearly explained in case files. Read More…

The Melrose Training Farm for Boys was established by the Try Society in 1938 at Harkaway, near Berwick. Previously, the Try Society ran the Clifden Farm and Try Boys’ Home at St Andrew’s North, but decided to move the institution to the new site where there were “better facilities for teaching agriculture and better housing accommodation” (Hurstbridge Advertiser 26 August 1938). The farm housed around 30 boys aged between 8 and 14. When it closed in August 1957, the boys were mostly transferred to other Homes including Tally Ho, Burwood Boys’ Home and Box Hill Boys’ Home. The Melrose Training Farm for Boys was established by the Try Society in 1938 at a property near Berwick (the location was also sometimes referred to as Harkaway). The farm aimed to ‘provide a healthy home environment for 30 boys and youths and … to train boys in farming and other agricultural pursuits’. The first boys at the home had been moved there from the Try Society’s Clifden Home at St Andrews.

The Status of Children Act 1979 (Act no. 16/1978) was passed on 26 January 1979 and commenced on 21 September 1979. Its full title was ‘An Act relating to the Status of Children’. It was amended in 1985 and 1996.

LONG READ: Our submission to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety

This is an image from the National Museum of Australia’s Collections pages.

The Young Women’s Christian Association, YWCA, was established in Darwin in 1969. It became an incorporated body in 1977. The focus of the organisation was to provide accommodation for young people in need of shelter. The YWCA ran the Darwin Youth Refuge from 1978.

Parenting Centres opened in the 1990s. They are run by the Child Health and Parenting Service operated by the Department of Health and Human Services. They provide support to families with children up to the age of five. In 2014, Parenting Centres continue to operate. Parenting Centres help solve breast feeding, sleeping, and behaviour problems with babies and young children. They also offer support to mothers with post natal depression and families with a range of relationship issues. These Centres appear to have evolved from the Southern Parenting Centre, established in the late 1980s or early 1990s with funds from the sale of the Mothercraft Home. In 2014, there is a Centre in the south, north and north-west of the state

Child Protection and Family Support is part of the Department of Communities, a department of the State Government of Western Australia created on 1 July 2017. Child Protection and Family Support provides the services that were previously delivered by the Department for Child Protection and Family Support. In 2018, Child Protection and Family Support ran 22 residential care homes – 14 metropolitan and 8 regional group homes.

In the middle of Dublin’s biggest tourist district, “Somebody’s Child” is somewhere between a memorial and a public art piece. It contains the names and birthdates of children who died in “care” in Ireland. Guest post by David McGinniss Read More…

“Following reports that every child in detention in the NT is Aboriginal, this is a reblog of a piece first published 2 years ago, after Four Corners first aired its investigation into Don Dale” Read More…

“He is a bad egg. His history of offences and reoffences is too long to list. We’re talking graffiti-ing. Littering. Smashing stuff. Burning stuff. Breaking stuff. Stealing stuff. Throwing rocks. Running away … and that’s just the stuff we know about …” This is a description of Ricky Baker, the hero of the (now showing) NZ comedy film Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Read More…

In May 1952, the Perth Sunday Times newspaper carried a series of articles about the fate of a young man who lived at Sister Kate’s Home, in Queens Park. A controversy had arisen about the Home’s policy that its residents be sent to work in the country when they turned 17, when one young man said that he would rather stay in the city. Read More…

Mercy Family Services delivers programs for children, young people and families in south-east Queensland, including residential care, foster care and kinship care. It is sponsored by the Brisbane Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, and from 2011 was operating as part of the Mercy Community banner.

The Combined Children’s Centre, run by the Mental Health Services Commission, opened on 29 March 1968, in Ellerslie Road, Battery Point. It provided mental health services to children, including state wards, and their families. In the early 1980s, it moved to Clare Street, New Town where, in 2014, it continues to operate as Clare House. The Combined Children’s Centre began as a pilot project which worked with the Guidance Branch of the Education Department. The Department of Health Services opened the Centre and handed it over to the newly formed Mental Health Services Commission within a year. The Centre employed a psychiatrist, an assistant psychiatrist, and a Senior Medical Officer (Child Psychiatry). Later it also employed psychologists and social workers. They took referrals from doctors, schools, the paediatric and psychiatric units at the Royal Hobart Hospital, children’s courts, child welfare officers, and children’s Homes. The Centre saw a number of children in foster or

Family Group Homes have existed in Australia since the late 1940’s and became an increasingly common model of ‘care’ in the eastern states during the second half of the century. Family Group Homes were located on residential streets, in the suburbs, generally without organisational signs and were often only open for relatively short periods of time. Read More…

Moola Bulla was established as a government-run station near Wyndham. It was established to be self-supporting, training Aboriginal families to farm the land with European methods. Children were removed from other locations and placed at Moola Bulla, or were sent from there to institutions in Perth. Moola Bulla closed in 1955. Moola Bulla Station was established on the Halls Creek Road, near Wyndham, Western Australia, in 1910 as a government-run pastoral station. Staff at Moola Bulla were provided by the Presbyterian Board of Missions and were responsible for the welfare, “morally and educationally”, of the children, as well as their housing. Children at Moola Bulla were under the guardianship of the head of the departments responsible for Aboriginal welfare. According to the Bringing Them Home report (p.92), the Chief Protector of Aborigines, AO Neville ‘wanted to take control of the missions’ in the northwest and ‘turn them into self-supporting cattle stations.’ The rep

Are they trying to hide something? I’ve been led astray! (Participant, Find & Connect Usability testing, 2012) Broken links are all over the internet, but what few people realise is the powerful, negative, even traumatising effect they can have on vulnerable people. Fixing them is part of my job, and something that takes (quite a lot of) time.Read More…

Please contact the Lambeth Palace Library: Address: 15 Lambeth Palace Road, London, SE1 7JT, United Kingtom Phone: +44 20 7898 1400 Email: archives@churchofengland.org – (please ensure that you write ‘CERC’ in the subject line). Website:  https://www.lambethpalacelibrary.info/using-the-library/registering-and-booking/

Mental Health Services is a division within the Department of Health and Human Services. In 2014, it offers care and treatment to people with mental illness, assistance to people affected by drug and alcohol, promotes mental health and wellbeing, and provides primary mental health care in the prison system.

Northcott is the modern name for the New South Wales Society for Crippled Children, which ran the disability institution Beverley Park and the Margaret Reid Orthopaedic Hospital for Crippled Children. In 1995 the Society changed its name to the Northcott Society, in honour of Governor Northcott, a past patron. In 2012 the organisation called itself Northcott. In 2022 Montrose Therapy and Respite Services merged with Northcott, which expanded Northcott’s services into South-East Queensland.

Montrose Therapy and Respite Services came into being in 2015. Previously it was known as MontroseAccess. In 2022 Montrose Therapy and Respite Services merged with Northcott.

This is a picture of a watercolour of the Geelong Industrial School.

This image shows some of the cottages of the Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home.

“Circa 1897 (the teacher’s cottage and slab kitchen on the right burned down in 1897). Taken from around the church area, with possible original Gribble cottage (later manager’s cottage) on the left. Provides good detail of Aboriginal housing and fencing.” [Description provided by NSW Office of Environment & Heritage]

This is an image of the Glen Mervyn Junior Red Cross Home. It shows a large two-storey brick building with two wings, and four columns at its entrance. This photograph is undated. The date given is an estiamate.

Stead House was the main building of the former Hopeleigh Maternity Home in Marrickville, which was run by the Salvation Army.

Photograph by Stewart Watters of Cleveland House

Photograph by Stewart Watters of Cleveland House.

Records of United Aborigines Mission (UAM) – copies of records from the UAM Archive made by Alison Longworth is an archival collection at the State Library of South Australia. The records comprise copies made by Alison Longworth when she visited the UAM Archive in Doncaster, Victoria, in the early 2000s while undertaking research for her PhD thesis “Was it worthwhile?: An historical analysis of five women missionaries and their encounters with the Nyungar people of south-west” (2005). The records copied by Longworth from UAM Archives include correspondence, memoranda and circulars, indexes, lists, limited print publications, and other administrative records relating to activities of federal- and state-based UAM organisations, particularly in Western Australia. They cover a date range of 1924 to 1997. The copies reveal information about the scope of UAM’s archival holdings and the systems they used to manage them. The UAM stated that its archives were destroyed following floodi

This page lists all of the United Aborigines Mission (UAM) archival records known to have existed and having once been in the organisation’s custody. Since the beginning of the Find & Connect web resource project, the UAM has disputed the scope and amount of records that have been identified as having once been held by the organisation.  Since at least 2015, the Find & Connect web resource has been aware of multiple First Nations people who had unsuccessfully attempted to access their own records from the UAM.  Due to the great importance of the UAM records to a large number of Stolen Generations members, the Find & Connect web resource has worked for years to try and engage with UAM and to ascertain information about the scope, content and whereabouts of its archives. The UAM

Accessing the information in the Ryan Report, Ireland’s Commission into child abuseRead More…

The Stradbroke Island Lazaret, on North Stradbroke Island in Moreton Bay, was established for the reception and medical treatment of lepers. Run by the State government, it opened in 1892 and closed in 1907. Stradbroke Island Lazaret was established over an area of approximately 17 acres, about a mile from Dunwich Jetty, on Stradbroke Island, Moreton Bay. It was situated beside the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum, a location that was next to a swamp and described as dark and miserable.The lazaret only housed male white patients. In 1907, Stradbroke Island Lazaret was closed and all patients were transferred to Peel Island, where a new lazaret was established for both European and non-European patients. 11 year old Noel Agnew was among the patients transferred to Peel Island.

The Church of England Rescue Home, in West End was established in 1894. It was run by the Society of the Sacred Advent. The Home accommodated pregnant single girls and unwed mothers and their babies. The residents operated a laundry on the site to generate income. In 1898 the Home relocated to Taringa.

The Boys’ Home was established in April 1890 in the South Brisbane home of Mr and Mrs Thompson. It was run by a Committee of private citizens. In late 1897 it moved to a property named ‘Rowallan’ at 84 Kedron Park Road, Wooloowin. In 1906, under Canon EC Osborn, the home moved to a nine-acre property at Hurdcotte Street, Enoggera and changed its name to Enoggera Boys’ Home. The Boys’ Home was opened in April 1890 by Mr and Mrs Thompson in their own home in Stanley Street, South Brisbane. It was maintained by private subscriptions and donations of food, clothing and furniture. Mr James Ferguson (of Messrs Watson and Ferguson, booksellers) acted as honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the home. He also acted as trustee for most boys when they left the home to take up employment. The boys’ employers forwarded their wages to Ferguson who deposited the wages in their Savings Bank Accounts. Within a few years new premises were sought to meet increasing demand and the Boys’ Home moved to

Understanding the background of state and territory welfare systems can make it easier to find records. For example, in South Australia there was a centralised government department that was usually involved in organising a child’s placement in ‘care’ so it makes sense to start with government records; in Victoria, until the 1950s many placements were likely to be arranged more informally by churches or charities (known as “voluntary” or “private placements”). Records may not be held by government archives, but with the past provider, or organisation that holds their records. Australian Capital Territory | New South Wales | Northern Territory | Queensland | South Australia |

The Industrial School for Boys at Indooroopilly was opened in 1922. The facility was run by the Salvation Army and catered for State orphans, abandoned and neglected boys. It moved to Washpool and was renamed the Boys Home, Washpool in 1942. The Industrial School for Boys, situated on Moggill Road, Indooroopilly (now called Chapel Hill), was run by the Salvation Army. Mr W R Black bought 22 acres of land for £2300 which he donated to Salvation Army. He also paid for the extension and renovation of the home, along with new furnishings. Black also provided £100 a year for maintenance of the facility. The Industrial School for Boys could accommodate up to 50 boys and nine staff. Ensign Rogan was appointed Superintendent when the Home opened in 1922. The Home was officially opened on 20 November 1922 by the Governor, Sir Matthew Nathan. Shortly after the opening 35 boys took up residence. The home was licensed under the State Children Act 1911 on 27 November 1922.

Cooinda Salvation Army Home for Boys was the new name given in 1968 to the Boys’ Home Indooroopilly. In September 1969, the name of the Home changed again, to Alkira, Salvation Army Home for Boys. Cooinda Salvation Army Home for Boys was investigated by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Case Study 05: The Salvation Army boys’ homes, Australian Eastern Territory.

The Boys Home, Indooroopilly was run by the Salvation Army. Before 1946, it was known as the Boys Home, Washpool. Previously, the institution had been an Industrial School. In 1968, the name was changed to Cooinda Salvation Army Home for Boys. In 1952 the Boys’ Home, Indooroopilly, had 61 residents, of whom 39 were wards of the state and 20 boys sent from private homes. In 1955 there were 50 residents. The ages of the boys at the home ranged from 8 to 14 years old. The boys were accommodated in dormitories, with two dormitories for older boys and one for younger boys. A publication from 1968 stated that the purpose of the Home (referred to as “Salvation Army Home and Hostel for Boys”) was to “provide a Christian home for boys in need and to prepare them for adult life. The Hostel is a bridge for boys moving from the Home to community life”. It stated that the Home accommodated 63 boys from 9 to 17 years, and the hostel accommodated 20 boys up to 20 years old. The Boys Home, In