Burnside Orphanage, Parramatta, August 1920, courtesy of State Library of New South Wales.
Details
Burnside, formerly Burnside Homes for Children, was a Uniting Church Agency that ran foster care, family group homes and outreach programmes from 1986 until 2000. By 2000 Burnside had become one of the largest providers of child and family services in New South Wales, although it was no longer providing residential care on its site at North Parramatta. In 2000 it became UnitingCare Burnside.
In the 1970s, a comprehensive and successful system of foster care was established by Burnside social workers. Burnside's homes for children ceased in the late 1980s, but the organisation ran family group homes and outreach programmes.
In the 1980s the need to raise funds to support Burnside's programmes prompted the sale of a large part of the site. Robertson, along with Ivanhoe, Sargood Hall, Blackwood, Son of the Rock and Reid were leased by Redeemer Baptist School in 1986 then sold to the school in 1994. Land was subdivided and sold, and a shopping centre was built to support new housing on the site.
The remaining buildings were converted to administrative centres, a library and an archives and museum.
1911 - 1955 Burnside Presbyterian Orphan Homes
1955 - 1978 Burnside Presbyterian Homes for Children
1978 - 1986 Burnside Homes for Children
1986 - 2000 Burnside
2000 - Uniting Burnside
Sources used to compile this entry: Keen, Susan, Burnside: 75 years of caring, Burnside Homes for Children, 1986; Thinee, Kristy and Bradford, Tracy, Connecting Kin: Guide to Records, A guide to help people separated from their families search for their records [completed in 1998], New South Wales Department of Community Services, Sydney, New South Wales, 1998, https://clan.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/connectkin_guide.pdf.
Prepared by: Naomi Parry
Created: 17 March 2011, Last modified: 11 May 2017
Last updated: 4 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nsw/biogs/NE00254b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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