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New South Wales - Organisation

Bomaderry Aboriginal Children's Home (1908 - 1988)

  • View of four of the five cottages from the west. In the foreground is the site of the original cottage dormitories

    View of four of the five cottages from the west. In the foreground is the site of the original cottage dormitories, c. 2011, by Thom, Louise, courtesy of NSW Office of Environment and Heritage.
    Details

From
1908
To
1988
Categories
Babies' Home, Children's Home, Home and Protestant
Alternative Names
  • Bomaderry Infants' Home
  • United Aborigines Mission Children's Home

Bomaderry Aboriginal Children's Home, located near Nowra, was established in 1908 by the United Aborigines Mission. It was a home for children aged under 10 and ran until 1988. As the longest-running Aboriginal Children's Home in NSW and the first Home to be established for Aboriginal children in NSW, it has been called "the birthplace" of the Stolen Generations in NSW.

Details

Bomaderry was started to receive seven Aboriginal children, six orphans and one baby rescued by Miss Thompson, a missionary working with Aboriginal people. A cottage was provided by Colebrook, the editor of the Bomaderry Mission's paper. The home developed until it had four cottages, the last of which was opened on 29 May, 1924. Up to 47 children were resident at the Home at any one time. In 1929, M.F. Morton, MLA. gave five acres of land to the home, bringing the total area of the property to nine acres.

Although Bomaderry was always independent of the Aborigines Protection (Welfare) Board, the Board sent children from reserves and stations to be cared for at the home. Once they reached the age of 10, children were returned to the care of the Board and were often sent into domestic service. The United Aborigines Mission continued their close relationship with the Aborigines Welfare Board until 1969 and then continued to work with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.

Many of the original cottages have been lost, but cottages built from the 1960s to 1980s survive. The site has heritage listing and some buildings are used by the Nowra Land Council.

Bomaderry Aboriginal Children's Home was mentioned in the Bringing Them Home Report (1997) as an institution that housed Indigenous children removed from their families.

National Redress Scheme for people who have experienced institutional child sexual abuse

In 2021, the New South Wales government has agreed to be a funder of last resort for this institution. This means that although the institution is now defunct, it is participating in the National Redress Scheme, and the government has agreed to pay the institution's share of costs of providing redress to a person (as long as the government is found to be equally responsible for the abuse a person experienced).

Location

1908 - 1980s
Address - Bomaderry Aboriginal Children's Home was situated at 59 Beinda Street, Bomaderry. Location: Bomaderry

Related Concepts

Related Glossary Terms

Related Organisations

Publications

Journals

  • New South Wales. Aborigines Protection Board (ed.), Report of the Board, Government Printer, 1881-1941. Also available at http://nla.gov.au/nla.aus-vn1447508. Details
  • New South Wales. Aborigines Welfare Board (ed.), Annual report of the Aborigines Welfare Board for the year ended …, Government Printer, 1949-1968. Details

Reports

  • Bringing them home: National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, Commonwealth of Australia: Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission, 1997, 689 pp. Also available at https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/publications/bringing-them-home-stolen. Bomaderry Aboriginal Children's Home was mentioned in the Bringing Them Home Report (1997) as an institution that housed Indigenous children removed from their families. Details
  • Hanson, Dallas, Why are they in children's homes: report of the ACOSS children's home intake survey, Australian Department of Social Services: Australian Council of Social Services, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1979, 83 pp. Details

Online Resources

Photos

View of four of the five cottages from the west. In the foreground is the site of the original cottage dormitories
Title
View of four of the five cottages from the west. In the foreground is the site of the original cottage dormitories
Type
Image
Date
c. 2011
Creator
Thom, Louise
Publisher
NSW Office of Environment and Heritage

Details

Sources used to compile this entry: State archives relating to Aboriginal people, State Records NSW, 1998, http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/state-archives/guides-and-finding-aids/archives-relating-to-aboriginal-people/state-archives-relating-to-aboriginal-people; Stolen Generations' Testimonies, Stolen Generations' Testimonies Foundation, 2012, http://www.stolengenerationstestimonies.com/; Hanson, Dallas, Why are they in children's homes: report of the ACOSS children's home intake survey, Australian Department of Social Services: Australian Council of Social Services, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1979, 83 pp; Korff, Jens, 'Bomaderry', Creative Spirits, https://web.archive.org/web/20210306141814/https://www.creativespirits.info/australia/new-south-wales/bomaderry/; Lauder, Joanna, Bomaderry Aboriginal Children's Home listed on heritage register, 15 February 2013, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-14/bomaderry-aboriginal-children27s-home/3829812; New South Wales. Aborigines Protection Board (ed.), Report of the Board, Government Printer, 1881-1941. Also available at http://nla.gov.au/nla.aus-vn1447508; New South Wales. Aborigines Welfare Board, Annual report of the Aborigines Welfare Board for the year ended 1940, Government Printer, 1941; New South Wales. Aborigines Welfare Board (ed.), Annual report of the Aborigines Welfare Board for the year ended …, Government Printer, 1949-1968; Parry, Naomi, 'Such a longing': black and white children in welfare in New South Wales and Tasmania, 1880-1940, Department of History, University of New South Wales, 2007, 361 pp, http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/40786; 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