Queens Orphan Asylum New Town, 1863, courtesy of Tasmanian Images: Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office.
Details
The New Town Infirmary replaced the New Town Charitable Institution in 1912. Its residents included children detained by the government for various reasons. In 1934, the New Town Infirmary became the New Town Rest Home.
The main purpose of the New Town Infirmary was to house people who were aged and infirm. However, as the former Queen's Orphan Asylum, it was a large site which meant that the government found additional uses for it. Adults and children detained under the Mental Deficiency Act 1920 lived in a Mental Defectives Home at the Infirmary. Until 1922, when it moved to Deloraine, the Boys' Training School was there. State wards requiring temporary accommodation or that the Children of the State Department did not know how to place also lived at the Infirmary. Apart from the boys at the Training School, children at the Infirmary lived with adults. In 1934, the New Town Infirmary became the New Town Rest Home.
1833 - 1879 Queen's Orphan Asylum
1879 - 1912 New Town Charitable Institution
1912 - 1934 New Town Infirmary
1934 - 1936 New Town Rest Home
1936 - 1994 St John's Park
Sources used to compile this entry: Social Services and Children of the State Department: Report for the year ended 1943-44, Social Services and Children of the State Department, Hobart, 1944; Pearce, Kim and Doyle, Susan, New Town: a social history, Hobart City Council, Hobart, 2002, 144 pp.
Prepared by: Caroline Evans
Created: 21 November 2011, Last modified: 19 March 2014
Last updated: 18 January 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/tas/biogs/TE00263b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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