Abermere Receiving Home, run by the government, opened in Mount Stuart in 1975. It provided temporary accommodation to children who were wards of state or supervised in other ways by the Social Welfare Department. In the early 1980s, Abermere Receiving Home became Abermere Family Group Home.
A married woman, known as a Receiving Home Keeper, managed Abermere with the assistance of her husband, who was in paid employment. In return, they did not pay rent.
The Home provided accommodation for new wards of the state or children on remand from the courts until the Department found a more permanent placement for them. It also took in children requiring temporary accommodation under the Domestic Service Assistance Act and in transit between homes.
The Department changed the name in the early 1980s to Abermere Family Group Home apparently to emphasise its domestic environment and the fact that some children stayed in the Home longer if they got on well with the Receiving Home Keeper.
1975 - 1980 Abermere Receiving Home
c. 1981 - c. 2000 Abermere Family Group Home
Sources used to compile this entry: Department of Social Welfare: report for the year ended 30 June 1977, Department of Social Welfare, Hobart, 1977; Department of Social Welfare: report for the year ended 1981, Department of Social Welfare, Hobart, 1981; Ombudsman Tasmania, Review of claims of abuse from adults in state care as children - Final Report - Phase 2, June 2006. Also available at https://stors.tas.gov.au/au-7-0057-00034.
Prepared by: Caroline Evans
Created: 16 December 2011, Last modified: 4 February 2014