Dr Dill Macky Memorial Home (1922 - 1983)

Dr Dill Macky Memorial Home, Strathfield, was a sister institution for the Dr Dill Macky Memorial Home in Auburn, (previously known as the King Edward VII Home, Auburn) which had been founded in 1911, by the Reverend Dr William Dill Macky.

Dill Macky (1849-1913) was a firebrand Presbyterian minister who taught at St Andrews' College at Sydney University, was attached to Sydney Scots Presbyterian Church, and toured New South Wales as an anti-Catholic preacher. He established the first Dill Macky Home to ensure Protestant children were not raised in Catholic institutions and converted to the Catholic faith.

The second Dill Macky Memorial Home was established in a large house on a two-acre property in Albert Road, Strathfield, in 1922. At that time the Auburn Dill Macky Home held over 50 children, and the Strathfield home was intended to take some of these children, and provide space for up to 150 more.

The Australian Protestant Orphan Society, with the financial support of the Loyal Orange Lodge and some Protestant benefactors, purchased the new property for 4500 pounds, and spent over 2000 pounds renovating it. The new home was opened by Mrs TR Moxham, the widow of a former MP for Parramatta, in March 1922. The Sydney Morning Herald reported:

The homes were undenominational. The children were not bound. If parents wished to hand their children over to the homes the council would accept them, but they would not let the parents escape the whole of their responsibility. If they could afford it they would have to pay for the maintenance of their children. Their objects were to give good food, a good home, and sound education to the children thus fitting them for their future career … They always endeavoured to make the place a home in the true sense and for this reason the children did not wear a uniform.

Although the Loyal Orange Lodge said the home was 'undenominational', it is quite clear that the home was intended for Protestant children. At the official opening the chairman of the Lodge was reported by the Herald as saying:

Protestants in the past have been too dilatory, allowing Roman Catholics to carry on the work of gathering in our children and making Roman Catholics of them. If the Protestant community will do in the future what it did for the Auburn Home, they will be able to make this home just as successful.

This home closed in the early 1980s. Its records are held by the Mitchell Library.

Location

1922? - 1983?

Address - Dill Macky Memorial Home Strathfield was situated at 95-103 Albert Road, Strathfield. Location: Strathfield