Catholic Girls' Home Parkside

The Catholic Girls Home at Parkside was opened in 1930 to accommodate Roman Catholic girls from the Salvation Army run Barton Vale Girls’ Home. It was run by the Sisters of St Joseph and overseen by the Children’s Welfare and Public Relief Board. The Catholic Girls’ Home closed in 1943 and the girls were transferred to the Convent of the Good Shepherd at Plympton.

The Catholic Girls’ Home, Parkside, also known as Genazzano Home, was opened on the 31 August 1930 in a twelve room house at 21 Young Street Parkside that was already owned by the Catholic Church. Genazzano is a village in Italy where a miraculous picture of the Virgin Mary is venerated. The establishment of this new reformatory had been encouraged by the chairman of the Children’s Welfare and Public Relief Department. He wished to relocate the ten Roman Catholic girls detained in the Salvation Army managed Barton Vale Girls’ Home to a separate Catholic reformatory. There they would be able to receive religious training in their own faith. The majority of these Catholic girls from Barton Vale had been at the Redruth Girls’ Reformatory which closed in 1922. All girls at the Catholic Girls’ Home, Parkside, were wards of the State.

The new home at Parkside was small and could only house ten girls at one time. It was always regarded as temporary. The Home operated under the direction of the Archbishop of Adelaide and was managed by the Sisters of St Joseph. The first matron was Sister Francis Clare. The home was also under the control of the Children’s Welfare and Public Relief Board which paid a subsidy to the reformatory to cover the cost of the care of the girls. In 1930 this sum was £1 per girl per week. The Board also agreed to contribute half the cost of the renovation of the Home.

During the Second World War the girls received correspondence school lessons and were given instruction in first aid and air raid precautions. On 21 January 1943 the Catholic Girls’ Home, Parkside closed and the girls were transferred to the Convent of the Good Shepherd ‘The Pines’ at Plympton.