The Gordon Homes for Boys and Girls, c. 1969
Details
The Gordon Homes for Boys opened in Highett in 1951. Formerly, services had been provided at the Gordon Institute in Melbourne. The Homes accommodated boys aged between 5 and 14 in cottage homes. In 1969, the Home became the Gordon Homes for Boys and Girls.
The Gordon Homes for Boys were located on the Nepean Highway in Highett.
In July 1956, the 'Gordon Boys' Cottages' was declared an approved children's home under the Children's Welfare Act 1954.
In 1962 an existing house in Rowans Road adjoining the home was bought and converted to a working boys hostel.
The new Homes at Highett reflected a philosophical change in child welfare, away from dormitory-style accommodation, towards cottage homes. The Homes shifted to a model of 'scattered family group homes' in 1967 and eight group homes were operating by the early 1970s enabling accommodation of girls and sibling groups.
From 1969, The Gordon Homes for Boys was known as The Gordon Homes for Boys and Girls.
In 2021, the Victorian government has agreed to be a funder of last resort for this institution. This means that although the institution is now defunct, it is participating in the National Redress Scheme, and the government has agreed to pay the institution's share of costs of providing redress to a person (as long as the government is found to be equally responsible for the abuse a person experienced).
1886 - 1951 Gordon Institute
1951 - 1969 Gordon Homes for Boys
1969 - 2000 The Gordon Homes for Boys and Girls
2000 - 2013 GordonCare for Children
Sources used to compile this entry: 'Our Story: history', in GordonCare for Children Website, GordonCare for Children, 2009, https://web.archive.org/web/20110406092736/http://www.gordoncare.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page&p=3&m=74&sm=159; James Jenkinson Consulting, Guide to out-of-home care services 1940-2000 - Volume One: Agency Descriptions, Department of Human Services, Unpublished, November 2001, https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/DHS.3004.011.0367.pdf.
Prepared by: Cate O'Neill
Created: 20 August 2009, Last modified: 7 December 2021
Last updated: 18 January 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/vic/biogs/E000392b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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