Records held by AnglicareSA (1948 - 1990)

Access Conditions

For access to records related to former Church of England and Anglican Children's Homes please contact the Privacy Officer. Requests for records need to be made in writing and proof of identity provided. Where the request is about someone other than the applicant, permission from that person or other evidence of eligibility to access that information must be provided. AnglicareSA archives is not open to the public but an appointment can be made to discuss the records.

Records

The records in this collection contain information about children in children's Homes run by the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania and, later, the Anglican Church of Australia. They also include records about the management and running of some of the Homes.

Records in this collection have been catalogued by AnglicareSA as part of the Records Access Documentation Grants in 2017.

The collection includes the following records:

St Mary's Home for Children

• Admissions and Discharges Registers, 1963-1979 (Residential Care) & 1974-1989 (Day Care) - Contains information such as: child's name; admission date; child's health; religion; name and address of individual who admitted child; parents names; residential address and phone number; immunisation details; admission and discharge dates; siblings names; Christmas release and outing details.
• Case Notes - Admissions, 1972-1981 (incomplete) - Contains individual folders for children and siblings who were admitted to St. Mary's. The folders contains information such as: initial application; inpatient clinical summaries; psychiatric assessments; behavioural reports; outing reports; medical history; photos; letters from the Church of England Social Welfare Committee to the Home with background information for required care.
• Staff & Seniors Meetings, 1981-1983 - Contains meeting minutes of staff, residential senior staff and senior staff meetings.
• Night Staff Book, 1980-1981- Contains logs from staff monitoring children in overnight care.
• Diary, 1980-1989, Contains a brief record of yearly activities, meetings, staff and child medical appointments.
• Communication Book, 1979-1985 (Missing 1984) - Contains summaries of staff meetings minutes, requests for sundry purchases, shift changeover messages between staff around placement of children and phone messages.
• House Committee and Day Care Minutes, 1973-1981 - Contain minutes and staff reports
• Child Endowment Books, 1948-1982 (1976-1979 missing) - Contains information about children to submit for claiming child endowment from the government. Information includes: child's name; date of birth; admission date; discharge date; days in care and amount of endowment.
• Financial Records, 1972-1980 - Contains records related to financial transactions.
• Matron's Reports, 1956-1974 (1965-1973 missing) - Contains reports on numbers of admission and discharges, children's health, maintenance and staff. Children's names are occasionally included.

Kennion Cottage

• Diary, 1985-1987 - Contains brief records of daily activities, meetings, staff and child appointments.
• Communication Book, 1987-1990 - Contains a diary recording children's behaviours and movements.
• Case Notes - Admissions, 1982-1983 - Contains individual folders for children and siblings who were admitted. Folders contain initial application and some files have inpatient clinical summaries, psychiatric assessments, behavioural reports, reports on outings, medical history, photos, letters from the Church of England Social Welfare Committee to the Home with background information for required care.

Kennion House

• Staff Meetings, 1982-1983 - Contain minutes of staff meetings at Kennion House and mention day to day operations and facilities.

Anglican Child Care Services

• Programme Panel, 1980 - Contains forms used for recording 'Programme Panel' decisions about children's admission to Farr House, Kennion House and St. Mary's Home. Information generally includes: child's name; birth date; behaviour; other organisations involved; school report summary and summary of how to manage with suggested activities.
• Administrator's Report, 1982-1986 - Contains reports about issues, capital works, fundraising, staff appointments and in-care statistics for St Mary's Day Care, Nairne Street (Ross Cottage), Garden Cottage, Kennion Cottage, Farr Cottage (House), Rose Cottage and Ragless Cottage.