The former Cottage Home, Rochebank Hostel and Family Group Home, 2012, by Caroline Evans
Details
Rochebank Hostel, run by the government, opened in 1950 in the Glebe, apparently to accommodate children under the Domestic Service Assistance Scheme. After 1972, it also received teenage girls who were wards of state or supervised in other ways by the Social Services Department and its successors. Rochebank became a Family Group Home in the early 1980s.
Rochebank Hostel took over the house in Edward Street, Glebe left vacant when the Cottage House moved to West Hobart.
In the financial year ending in June 1962, 59 children were 'cared' for at Rochebank under the Domestic Service Assistance Scheme or ResDA. In the year ending 1963, there were 40 children.
In the early 1970s, there were more teenage girls who were wards of state than usual. Some had just left school and were looking for work and somewhere to live while others were detained by various court orders. In 1972, Rochebank became a special hostel for these girls. It continued to take children under the Domestic Service Assistance Scheme.
In 1978, the Department had Rochebank rewired and substantially renovated. The children and Receiving Home Keeper moved to Mosley Receiving Home on 14 March 1978, returning on 20 November 1978.
Sources used to compile this entry: Social Services Department: report for the year ended 30th June 1960, Social Services Department, Hobart, 1960; Report of the Department of Social Welfare; for the year ended 30th June 1962, Department of Social Welfare, Hobart, 1962; Social Services Department: report for the year ended 30 June 1963, Department of Social Services, Hobart, 1963; Department of Social Welfare: report for the year ended 30th June 1965, Department of Social Welfare, Hobart, 1965; Report of the Stolen Generations Assessor, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Tasmania, 2008, https://stors.tas.gov.au/au-7-0020-00382$stream; Ombudsman Tasmania, Listen to the children: Review of claims of abuse from adults in state care as children, Office of the Ombudsman, Tasmania, Hobart, November 2004. Also available at https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1382077009/view.
Prepared by: Caroline Evans
Created: 12 January 2011, Last modified: 11 March 2014