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South Australia - Organisation

Craigburn Farm (1923 - 1990s)

  • Tassie House, Craigburn 1940

    Tassie House, Craigburn 1940, courtesy of Disability Information and Resource Centre.
    Details

Minda Home

From
1923
To
1990s
Categories
Disability Institution and Home

Craigburn Farm in the Adelaide Hills was purchased by Minda Home in 1923. By the early 1930s the 1400 acre (566 hectare) property operated as a farm supplying meat, firewood, fruit and vegetables for Minda Home. Dormitories were built at the Farm to accommodate workers who were primarily boys from Minda Home. Craigburn Farm was subdivided in the 1990s and became a residential suburb of Adelaide.

Details

Craigburn Farm was a 1400 acre (566 hectares) property in the Adelaide Hills which was purchased by Minda Home in 1923. The purpose of the Farm was to create work for boys living at Minda Home and to provide produce for the Home. By the early 1930s the Farm supplied meat, firewood, fruit and vegetables to Minda.

As part of a 2013-2014 reminiscence and art project related to Minda Home, residents remembered that the boys from Minda Home who worked at the Farm:

would get up in the morning, have breakfast at Brighton and walk to Craigburn Farm ... they would work the land, milk the cows, cut the wood for the fires and then they would walk back to site, have dinner and darn their socks.

The walk from Brighton to Craigburn Farm was a 30 kilometre round trip. As a result of the demand of this journey and other factors, dormitories were built at the Farm.

Craigburn Farm was subdivided in the 1990s and became a residential suburb of Adelaide.

Location

1923 - 1990s
Location - Craigburn Farm was situated at what is now the corner of Fergusson and Dawbiney Avenues, Blackwood. Location: Blackwood

Publications

Online Resources

Photos

Photographs of Craigburn farm and Minda Home at Brighton
Title
Photographs of Craigburn farm and Minda Home at Brighton
Type
Image
Date
c. 1925
Source
State Library of South Australia

Details

Tassie House, Craigburn 1940
Title
Tassie House, Craigburn 1940
Type
Image
Date
1940
Source
Disability Information and Resource Centre

Details

Sources used to compile this entry: 'History of Minda Inc.', in Minda Inc, Minda Incorporated, 2014, https://web.archive.org/web/20210407123007/https://www.mindainc.com.au/history; Mullighan, the Hon E.P., Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry: Allegations of sexual abuse and death from criminal conduct, presented to the South Australian Parliament by the Hon. E.P. Mullighan QC, Commisioner, Children in State Care Commission of Enquiry, Adelaide, South Australia, 2008, 564 pp, https://www.childprotection.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/107201/children-in-state-care-commission-of-inquiry-introducation.pdf.

Prepared by: Karen George and Gary George