The Infant Life Protection Act 1890
Details
The Infant Life Protection Act 1890 (No. 1198) commenced on 31 January 1891. It shifted the control of overseeing paid children's nurses to the police, and explicitly stated that people had to be registered if they were for the purpose of nursing or maintaining such infant apart taking charge of a child under two years of age 'for the purpose of maintaining such infant for a longer period than three consecutive days' or 'for the purpose of adopting such infant'.
Since the 1870s there had been mounting public concern about the fates of infants placed with paid nurses, often referred as 'baby farmers', and in 1883 an amendment to the Public Health Act placed the monitoring of such arrangements under the control of Local Health Boards.
The Infant Life Protection Act 1890 shifted the control of overseeing paid children's nurses to the police, and explicitly stated that people had to be registered if they were for the purpose of nursing or maintaining such infant apart taking charge of a child under two years of age 'for the purpose of maintaining such infant for a longer period than three consecutive days' or 'for the purpose of adopting such infant'. The clause referring to adoption was intended to regulate the work of people who brokered adoptions by taking charge of surrendered infants and matching them with adoptive parents for a fee. At this time, there was no law providing for an adoption to be recognised in law and it was not unusual for informal adoptions to be negotiated through 'baby farmers'.
The Infant Life Protection Act 1907 extended the definition of infants to include all children under five years of age and also transferred the administration of infant life protection measures to the Neglected Children's Department. The Infant Life Protection Act 1915, No. 2670 which repealed this Act, was a re-enactment of the 1907 provisions, and was consolidated in the Children's Welfare Act 1928.
1891 - 1915 Infant Life Protection Act 1890
1915 - 1929 Infant Life Protection Act 1915
1929 - 1955 Children's Welfare Act 1928
1955 - 1959 Children's Welfare Act 1954
1959 - 1971 Children's Welfare Act 1958
1971 - 1978 Social Welfare Act 1970
1979 - 1983 Community Welfare Services Act 1978
1987 - Community Services Act 1987
Sources used to compile this entry: Jaggs, Donella, Neglected and criminal: foundations of child welfare legislation in Victoria, Centre for Youth and Community Studies, Phillip Institute of Technology, Melbourne, 1986; Law Research Service, Melbourne Law School, Law Library, The University of Melbourne. 'Find and Connect Project - Victoria Legislation', 13 December 2013, held in the project files at the University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre.
Prepared by: Nell Musgrove
Created: 2 December 2009, Last modified: 22 December 2015