Tresillian Home, Willoughby, 1932, courtesy of State Archives NSW.
Details
Tresillian Willoughby is a Tresillian Family Care Centre. It was established as a Mothercraft Nursing Home in 1927, to support mothers and care for babies, and in 2012 continues to provide support to parents of young children.
In the 1960s Tresillian North Home could accommodate 10 mothers with breastfed babies, eight artificially fed babies and five premature babies at any one time. Over the course of the year it cared for approximately 110 mothers and 210 babies.
From the 1950s to the 1970s a number of unmarried pregnant women were sent to Tresillian Centres by social workers from Sydney hospitals. The women were paid as domestic help, and worked around the homes. At the time social workers considered this was a better option than working in private households or commercial laundries. These women were not patients, but staff, and no records of their work survives.
Sources used to compile this entry: Annual Report [Tresillian Mothercraft Homes], The Society: Royal Society for the Welfare of Mothers and Babies, Sydney, 1920-. Also available at http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1655465; Royal Society for the Welfare of Mothers and Babies, Tresillian mothercraft homes: fifty year jubilee, 1920-1970, O'Connor, Graham, Petersham, 1970, 14 pp; Wellfare, Dian, Breaches of Adoption Regulations, Laws and Crimes: Inhumane Hospital Practices, Origins Inc, 1995, http://lilyfair1.tripod.com/law/id16.html; Wellfare, Dian, NSW Parliamentary Inquiry Into Adoption Practices Personal Submission, Origins Inc, 1995, http://www.originsnsw.com/nswinquiry2/id14.html; Interview with Miss Elaine Carr, former staff member from Tresillian Vaucluse and Matron at Tresillian Petersham, 27 September 2012.
Prepared by: Naomi Parry
Created: 21 September 2012, Last modified: 9 December 2013
Last updated: 4 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nsw/biogs/NE01196b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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