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Mission Australia was formed in 1996 when Sydney City Mission, Adelaide City Mission, Wollongong City Mission, Perth City Mission (also known as Jesus People Inc.), Brisbane City Mission, Mission Australia Northern New South Wales, Mission Australia Southern New South Wales, Mission Australia Group Training and Mission Employment all joined forces. It provides a range of welfare services, although it no longer conducts residential care for young people or children. Mission Australia was formed in 1996, and was the new name for the Sydney City Mission. The Sydney City Mission was founded in 1862, by Benjamin Short, a new arrival who was appalled by the poverty he witnessed in city. It provided a range of services to the disadvantaged. Mission Australia runs community and employment services across Australia, delivering youth and children’s programmes, jobseeker programmes, homelessness services and skills training. It has offices in every state. Records Records of the h

The South Perth Refuge was established around 1983 by the Jesus People, who were also known as Perth City Mission.  The refuge was described in 1983 as providing safe accommodation and support for up to ten young women aged 14-25 years, generally without children, with the length of stay dependent on individual needs. The South Perth Refuge had closed by 1991.

National Redress Scheme Closes 30 June 2027 The National Redress Scheme was established following recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, for people who experienced institutional child sexual abuse. If you are thinking of making an application for Redress, the Find & Connect web resource holds information about the institutions you were in, and how to apply for any records that may exist about your time in ‘care’. For more information about Redress, and the free and confidential Redress Support Services, please visit the National Redress Scheme website or call the National Redress Information Line on 1800 737 377. Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme Closes 28 February 2026 The Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme is a financial and wellbe

The Wolston Park Hospital, situated at Wacol, Queensland, was a State-run facility. Wolston Park Hospital was previously known as the Brisbane Special Hospital, and sometimes was referred to as Goodna. It is known that children who were wards of the state were placed at Wolston Park during the 1960s-1980s, despite the existence of Wilson Youth Hospital and Karrala House, dedicated institutions for children and young people deemed to have mental health issues . It is estimated up to 60 wards of the state were sent to Wolston Park, usually as a transfer from a Queensland children’s institution or from Lowson House, an adult ward within Brisbane Hospital. From around the 1950s to the 1980s, juvenile “delinquency” was seen as a psychiatric as well as moral issue. As Chynoweth writes, “For decades, child protection polici

Carramar Homes, also known as Carramar Cottages or Carramar Hostels, at Girraween (near Parramatta) and Turramurra were established by the Home Mission Society of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney and were later run by the Church of England (Anglican) organisation Charlton Youth Services. The Carramar Homes were maternity homes providing accommodation to expectant single mothers. They continued the work that had been done at the earlier Carramar Home at Turramurra, but at a smaller scale than before. The house at Girraween had accommodation for six young women under the age of 20, plus three live-in staff. The house at Turramurra catered for women over 20 years of age. There were also plans for a third house, which was intended to provide respite accommodation for up to three months for women and their newborn babies who had nowhere else to stay. It is not clear if this third house was ever opened. The Carramar Homes

Carramar, also called Carramar Maternity Home and Carramar Hostel, was an Anglican home for unmarried mothers that opened at Turramurra in 1961. It was run by the Home Mission Society and at its peak held up to 27 women. Mothers who kept their babies were sent to a post-natal cottage at Berowra. Its staff also arranged adoptions and the Carramar Adoption Agency was set up as part of Carramar. Carramar and the Berowra post-natal cottage closed in 1984, and two new, smaller Carramar Homes were established in their place. In 1966 the ABC Four Corners television programme visited Carramar as part of a story on adoption, and footage from the Home was featured in a 2012 Four Corners story about forced adoptions. One of the Matr

The Anglican Adoption Agency was the adoption agency for the Anglican Church in NSW. I had previously been known as the Church of England Adoption Agency until the name was changed in 1978. It arranged adoptions for many of the babies of women and girls who stayed at the Carramar Maternity Home, and later the Carramar Homes. Since 1997, the service has been known as Anglicare Adoption Services

Carramar Adoption Agency was established in 1961, and was known by that name until 1965, when it became the Church of England Adoption Agency. In 1978 the name was again changed, to Anglican Adoption Agency. Since 1997, the service has been known as Anglicare Adoption Services. Carramar Adoption Agency arranged adoptions for many of the babies of women and girls who stayed at the Carramar Maternity Home.

The Child Protection Systems Royal Commission was established in August 2014 to investigate the adequacy of the child protection system in South Australia. Royal Commissioner Margaret Nyland reported to the government on 5 August 2016. The report, titled ‘The life they deserve’ made 260 recommendations for improvements to the child protection system.

The Roman Catholic Orphan School was established at Waverley House, a large home in Waverley, in 1837. It was the first Catholic orphanage in Australia. It was opened in response to community concerns about Catholic children being placed in the government-run Protestant orphan schools, where they were raised as Protestants, not Catholics. The home was run by the Catholic archdiocese of Sydney, but received financial support from the State Government. The Home had capacity for approximately 100 children. It took in both girls and boys, housing them in separate ‘schools’. The children were taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and were sent to apprenticeships once old enough. The Home closed in 1844. In December 1840 it was reported in the Australasian Chronicle that a dinner had been held for the children at the Orphan School, funded by a local benefactor. The children ate roast beef, mutton, vegetables, and plum pudding. The benefactor requested that the dinner be an annua

The Thomas Street Asylum was established by the Benevolent Society of New South Wales in 1904. It was the only hospital in the city for destitute and homeless mothers nursing their infants. The Asylum also cared for orphans and foundlings who were usually discharged to the care of the State Children’s Relief Department. In 1911 Thomas Street Asylum became the Renwick Hospital for Infants. The Thomas Street Asylum was a new Asylum built by the Benevolent Society of New South Wales on the corner of Thomas Street and Quay Street, Ultimo, near Central Station in Sydney. The majority of women housed in Thomas Street Asylum were young, unmarried mothers. In 1911, the Asylum underwent alterations and wards providing for the treatment of sick infants were added. This new hospital was renamed the Renwick Hospital for Infants and was opened on 3 July 1911.

The Select Committee on Child Protection was set up in October 2010 and reported in 2011. It found that the child protection system was under ‘serious stress’ and that as a result, children were not receiving the care and protection that they needed. The situation was not caused by child protection workers, who did a good job under considerable pressure, but by problems within the culture and organisation of the Department of Health and Human Services. The Select Committee was set up following considerable publicity and concern about the situation of one state ward. This led to a debate in the Parliament about the problems with the child protection system and how to deal with them. The Report of the Committee depicted an over burdened system with 20,000 notifications and nearly 1000 children in state care during 2010. It received evidence that the current child welfare system was ‘unsustainable’ and unable to meet demand. Even though there had been 12 reports since 2005, followed

Karrala House was opened 18 February 1963 in the female ward of the Ipswich Mental Hospital. Run by the state government, Karrala House accommodated ‘wayward’ and ‘delinquent’ girls and was a separate building and enclosure from the rest of the centre. A second unit, ‘Karrala 2’ was opened in December 1968 to accommodate more girls. The institution was closed in 1971 following the opening of a Remand and Assessment Centre for Girls at Wilson Youth Hospital. At this time, the remaining girls at Karrala were transferred to Wilson Youth Hospital. In 1961 the Nicklin government announced plans to turn the vacant wards at the Ipswich Mental Hospital (Female 2 and 3) into a training school for girls. On 17 January 1963 Karrala House (Training Home for Girls), was established under the provisions of the State Children’s Act 1911 – 1955. The State Children Department’s annual report for 1963 stated that Karrala House was established ‘for the purpose of dealing with the more emotionally dist

This is a copy of a photograph of the exterior of McBride Maternity Hospital. It is one of a collection of 89 photographs relating to the Salvation Army in South Australia, collected by Verity Stevenson, who was a Social Work Officer with the Salvation Army.

Barton Vale Girls’ Home was established at Harewood Avenue, Enfield by the Salvation Army in 1922. It took over the role of the government-run Redruth Girls’ Reformatory which closed in the same year. As a reformatory it accommodated girls who were convicted for offences or for other reasons were deemed to be in need of strong discipline. In 1947 the Government took control of Barton Vale and renamed it Vaughan House. In 1922 the South Australian State Government, upon the recommendation of the State Children’s Council, decided to close the reformatory for girls at Redruth in Burra. The Government requested that The Salvation Army open a similar institution to replace Redruth and assisted the Army in its purchase of a 21 acre (8.5 hectares) estate on Harewood Avenue, Enfield, known as Barton Vale. According to a July 1922 newspaper article similar arrangements between the Victorian State Government and The Salvation Army had led to the creation of three Salvation Army homes for girl

This is a copy of a photograph of the exterior of Barton Vale Girls’ Home. It is one of a collection of 89 photographs relating to the Salvation Army in South Australia, collected by Verity Stevenson, who was a Social Work Officer with the Salvation Army.

Claremont Hospital for the Insane was established in 1903, becoming known as the Claremont Mental Hospital in 1933. It was a government-run facility that accommodated children and young people with intellectual and other disabilities until the hospital closed in 1972. Claremont Mental Hospital was Western Australia’s main mental health institution from 1903 to 1972. Children with intellectual and other disabilities were sent there, often for a lifetime. Even after the juvenile wing was opened it was not uncommon for children and adolescents to be in the same wards as adults. Claremont Hospital for the Insane (‘Claremont’) was established by the Government of Western Australia in 1903 as a hospital principally for adults’. Patients were gradually transferred from the Fremantle Asylum until its closure in 1909. Children and young people with disabilities were among those tr

The Mental Hospitals Department was a government department responsible for the administration of mental health hospitals in Western Australia for the period 1934 until 1 January 1954. It took over this role from the Lunacy Department. During this period it was common to place children with intellectual and other disabilities in mental health institutions. Through the office of the Inspector General of the Insane (from 1947 known as the Inspector General of Mental Hospitals), the Department ran several hospitals and institutions for those with mental disabilities. In 1954 this responsibility was transferred to the Mental Health Services.

The Hillcrest Hospital was the new name given to the Northfield Mental Hospital in 1964. Run by the government it provided mental health services for inpatients, outpatients and day patients including children, some of whom were State children. In 1979-82 patients from Enfield Hospital were transferred to Hillcrest. The Hillcrest Hospital closed in 1994. It provided mental health services for inpatients, outpatients and day patients, as well as community services for the acute and chronically mentally ill, elderly patients suffering from dementia and related illnesses and people with alcohol dependence problems. Children, including some State children, continued to be sent to Hillcrest Hospital. The 2008 report from the Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry (the Mullighan inquiry) contained accounts from two former wards of state who were placed at Hillcrest as children and experienced sexual abuse (pp.139-142). On 1st July, 1979, Enfield Hospital was incorporated with

The Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry began in November 2004 under the terms of The Commission of Inquiry (Children in State Care) Act 2004. It produced its final report in March 2008. The terms of reference of the Inquiry were to investigate allegations of sexual abuse of children in State care and allegations of criminal conduct resulting in the death of children in State care. The Honourable EP Mullighan QC began his role as Commissioner role in December 2004. During the Inquiry 792 people sat with Commissioner Mullighan and told of incidents of child sexual abuse. These hearings identified 1592 allegations dating from the 1930s to the early 2000s. The Inquiry also received the names of 924 children alleged to have died while in State care. The Inquiry investigated each of these allegations and produced a 564 page report which found that ‘in the past 65 years the State has failed to protect some of the children in its care from sexual abuse’. The report included 54

This is an image of the Carramar Hostel at Girraween. It shows two people standing in the doorway of the Carramar Home, which is a brick house with three dormer windows along the roof. The caption published with the photo reads “Maureen Gordon and Rev. John Turner outside 69 Lyle St., Girraween”. This photo is undated, the date included is an estimate.

Nazareth House in Bluff Point, Geraldton was established in 1941 and run by the Poor Sisters of Nazareth. It was initially built in to house children sent as child migrants from Britain. However, as it became unsafe to transport children during the war, the large buildings were used to accommodate Australian-born children, including Aboriginal children removed from their families and culture, and old people who were deemed ‘destitute’. From the late 1970s, no children were admitted to Nazareth House but it continued as an aged care facility. Government reports (Signposts 2004, p.367) show that there was an intention, in 1941 at least, to use Nazareth House as a place to house ‘Roman Catholic children other than delinquents’ from the Geraldton area who were committed to an institution. Nazareth House was licensed to provide ‘care’ for children under 6 years old, and would be subsidised for admitting children referred through the child welfare authorities or children’s court wh

This is a copy of a photograph of the exterior of Barton Vale Girls’ Home. It is one of a collection of 89 photographs relating to the Salvation Army in South Australia, collected by Verity Stevenson, who was a Social Work Officer with the Salvation Army.

This is a photograph of the boys dormitory at Gosford Training School. It shows three rows of steel-framed beds and bed-side dressers in a long, high-ceilinged hall. It is likely that this dormitory looked similar when the institution became the Mount Penang Training School in 1946.

The Waitara Foundling Home was established in 1898 by the Sisters of Mercy, North Sydney Congregation as a home for babies and for unmarried mothers, who were referred from hospitals throughout the eastern states of Australia. In 1928 the Waitara Foundling Home was renamed Our Lady of Mercy Home. The Waitara Foundling Home was first established in an old cottage on Leek’s Orchard. In 1902, a two-storey brick home for mothers and babies was built, providing accommodation for mothers and their babies from hospitals and private homes throughout the eastern states of Australia. In 1921, Waitara Foundling Home was granted 5 shillings per week for every orphan in its care by the NSW Government. This allowance was extended to a range of private institutions that cared for children. In 1925 a pre-school kindergarten was opened within the Home, for the children in residential care. Whenever possible, mothers remained with their children until they were weaned. The Waitara Foundli

Care Force was part of the Anglican Home Mission Society. It was formed in early 1979, and was based at the former Charlton Boys’ Home site at Ashfield. It appears to have replaced Church of England Homes, taking over the children’s homes that had been run by the Sydney Diocese of the Church of England. Care Force later became Anglicare Child and Family Services and Anglicare Child Youth and Family Services Department. Records created by, or held by, Church of England Homes and Care Force are held by Anglicare Out-of-Home Care Services. According to an advertisement published in The Sydney Morning Herald in March 1979, the objectives of Care Force were to: “Provide accommodation and support for homeless children Place babies in need with loving adoptive parents Assist children from the courts to build a new life Help school-age pregnant girls<

Charlton Boys’ Home, Ashfield was established in 1966 by the Anglican Home Mission Society. It had earlier been known as the Charlton Memorial Home, located in Glebe, and moved into a property that was formerly the Milleewa Boys’ Home. In the late 1970s this property became known as Robinson Home. Like its predecessor, Charlton Boys’ Home was in some ways progressive for an institution of its time, however former residents have also described major issues at the home with harsh punishments and sexual abuse perpetrated by staff and other residents. Charlton Boys’ Home was intended to be a modernisation and streamlining of its activities previously conducted at Glebe. Charlton took boys aged 8 to 17 who had been through

“Correspondence files, single number series with ‘B’ [Child Endowment] prefix” is an archival series held by the National Archives of Australia. Its series number is A885. The records in A885 relate to child endowment and family allowances. The records were created by the Commonwealth Department of Social Services. Many of the files document the payment of child endowment to children’s institutions and Aboriginal missions. Generally, these files do not contain the names of children or families, however some do. Access Conditions These files are Open and accessible to anyone. The files are located in Canberra. Digital copies are available for a small number of files in this series. For access to these files please contact the National Archives of Australia. Records The records in A885 relate to child endowment and family allowances. The records were created by the Commonwealth Department of Social Services. Many of the files in this series document the payment o

Find and Connect was established to help Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants understand more about their past and about the historical context of child welfare in Australia. We assist people who spent time in an orphanage, children’s homes or foster care in Australia.  We cannot directly assist with family history research. Historical Child Welfare Records If your ancestor or relative encountered the child welfare system, for example was in an institution, in out-of-home or foster care, or was adopted, most state archives provide guides on searching the welfare records they hold: NSW historical child welfare records information

The Royal Women’s Hospital was established in 1856. Its first location was a two-storey house in East Melbourne, then in 1858 it moved to a site in Madeline St (now Swanston St) in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Carlton. Originally called the Melbourne Lying-In Hospital and Infirmary for Diseases of Women and Children, its name was simplified in 1884 to the Women’s Hospital (the ‘Royal’ title was conferred by Queen Elizabeth II on 6 September 1954). The hospital provides specialist care for women and newborn babies. By the second half of the twentieth century, more women gave birth in the Women’s maternity section than in any other hospital in the Commonwealth. Like other public hospitals for women in other jurisdictions, the Royal Women’s Hospital was involved in many Victorian adoptions, including during the era of forced adoptions. The Royal Women’s Hospital submission to the Senate inquiry into the Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices sta

The Northcote Farm School was established at Glenmore, near Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, in 1937. It was the only institution in Victoria to have been constructed specifically for child migrants. From 1937 to 1958, the Northcote Farm School received a total of 273 child migrants. From 1962, it changed its function and began to also accept local children, including wards of the state. Northcote Farm School had accommodation for approximately 200 children. It was run by the Northcote Trust until the Social Welfare Department took over in 1976. It closed in 1979. The Northcote Farm School was established at Glenmore, near Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, in 1937. The Farm was established as a result of a bequest by Lady Alice Northcote, wife of the Australian Governor-General and an admirer of Kingsley Fairbridge and his Farm School initiative. The Farm School was based on Fairbridge principles. Students at Northcote received farm training, as well

Kildonan Residential Units came into being in around 1958, when Kildonan set up its first family group home next-door to the Kildonan children’s Home in Burwood. The Burwood Home was sold in 1960, and seven more family group homes were purchased in the eastern suburbs. In 1989, Richmond Community Care Inc. Took over the management three of Kildonan’s residential units. Kildonan Residential Units came into being around 1958, when a property adjoining the Children’s Home in Burwood was purchased to be used as Kildonan’s first family group home, on an experimental basis. Subsequently, several homes in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne were purchased as Kildonan moved away from ‘institutional’ care towards the family group home model. At various times, Kildonan family group homes were located at Blackburn, Box Hill, Burwood, East Malvern, Syndal, North Balwyn, Canterbury, Hawthorn, Richmond, Fitzroy, Collingwood, Epping, Thomastown, Eltham, Hurstbridge, and Wattle Park. In 1989,

This collection of records of the Lady Victoria Buxton Girls Club comprises one minute book (1944 – 1954), miscellaneous correspondence about the Hostel of the Holy Name (1955 – 1960), annual reports (1948/49, 1953/54, & 1954/55), financial records (1960), and a record of office bearers. Access Conditions For access to many Anglican records held at the State Library of South Australia, you will need permission from the Diocesan Archivist at the Anglican Archives. This is called ‘mediated access’. Records which require mediated access are clearly identified in the State Library catalogue and/or findings aids and State Library staff will also be able to advise you if this is necessary. Mediated access is required when records contain personal information about individuals whose privacy needs to be protected. For access to Anglican records a written application to the Diocesean Archivist is required. You will also need to provide proof of your identity. If you are req

This collection of records of the Lady Victoria Buxton Girls Club comprises three minute books with annual reports attached, 1917-1944, and one index book containing information related to the collection of ‘tins’ during World War II, ca.1937-1944. It includes one colour photograph of the former Lady Victoria Buxton Girls Club buildings in Whitmore Square prior to their demolition. Access conditions For access to these records please contact the State Library of South Australia. Researchers can have access to documents and photographs held at the State Library of South Australia on presenting their Readers Ticket. The Ticket is available from the Somerville Reading Room. Records must be read in the Reading Room at the Library. Access to some collections of records may require written permission from the person or organisation that deposited the records.

Rose River Mission, also known as Numbulwar Mission, was established by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) on the East Coast of Arnhem Land in 1952. It was the fourth of five missions run in the Northern Territory by the CMS. A school for Aboriginal children was run at the Mission. In 1978 a Community Council took over administrative control of the settlement and it ceased to operate as a Mission. Rose River Mission, also known as Numbulwar Mission, was established as a mission settlement by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1952 on the East Coast of Arnhem Land at the mouth of the Rose River between Caledon Bay and the Roper River Estuary. The site was almost directly opposite the Groote Eylandt Mission at Angurugu on Groote Eylandt and was the fourth of five Missions in the Northern Territory run by the CMS. The first permanent structures were built at the Mission during late 1952. It took two years to construct an airstrip which opened in 1954. In 1955/56 houses for the

Milleewa was a boys’ home that was established by the Anglican Homes for Children Association in 1919. It was located in Ashfield and housed approximately 20 boys aged from five to 14. For six months during World War II the Church Mission Society leased a portion of the home as a hostel for Aboriginal women and children evacuated from Groote Eylandt and Roper River Mission, in the Northern Territory. In 1966 Milleewa was converted to Charlton Boys’ Home and Hostel. The original residence ‘Milleewa’ was built between 1857 and 1867 by Nicholas Eager, a draper, as a family home. It was a two storey brick house, with a galvanised iron roof and wide verandahs on three sides. The Anglican Homes for Children Association purchased the house and outbuildings in 1918 and converted it to a boys’ home. Extra washing and bathroom facilities were added, the upstairs rooms were converted to sleeping quarters and the vegetable gardens and orchards were retained. The outbuildings were converted to u

Please contact Integricare: Postal address: Level 1, Suite 8, 1-17 Elsie Street, Burwood, New South Wales, 2134 Phone: (02) 8746 5900 Email: admin@integricare.org.au Website: https://integricare.org.au/

The Sydney Female Mission Home was established on 17 November 1873. It was an institution for single pregnant women. It also admitted some single mothers together with their infants. It was a Protestant organisation run by a committee of women, with a non-sectarian admission policy. It was located in premises on Elizabeth Street, Sydney, overlooking Hyde Park from 1873 until January 1885, when it relocated to ‘Darlington House’ on the Newtown Road (later called City Road). In 1895, it moved again to Forest Lodge. By 1897, it was in new premises in Glebe, ‘The Willows’ on Bridge Road, and by 1908 it had moved again to ‘Bay View’ on Glebe Point Road, Glebe. The closing date of this institution is unclear, it was still operating in 1912. The Sydney Female Mission Home was unusual for its policy of admitting single women together with their infants. (This was also the practice for some of the women admitted to the Sydney Foundling Hospital in Paddington.) Its report from 1887 stated tha