The McOwan Boys' Training Farm, run by the Presbyterian Church, was established at Yarra Junction in around 1953 and officially opened in 1956. The Farm was for boys between the ages of 14 and 18. It appears to have closed around 1957.
The McOwan Boys' Training Farm, run by the Presbyterian Church, was situated in Yarra Junction. The Farm was for boys between the ages of 14 and 18. The property was donated to the Church in 1948 by the late Francis McOwan. The farm had frontages to the Little Yarra River and the Powelltown Road. In 1953, the appointment of the farm's superintendent-manager, Mr L. McLean of Drouin, was announced in The Argus newspaper. The article also stated that the training farm was to be run on the 'cottage system'. In April 1956 it was reported in The Argus that the McOwan Rural Training Centre (as it was also known) was to be officially opened.
Boys were admitted to the Farm either by their families, by the children's court, or sent from other children's Homes. Boys are known to have been sent between the McOwan Boys' Training Farm and Tally Ho, Kilmany Park, and Lake Tyers Mission.
Sources used to compile this entry: Farm given to church, The Argus, 13 November 1948, 20 pp, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22697557; Church to run boys' farm, The Argus, 26 September 1953, 4 pp, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23303404.
Prepared by: Cate O'Neill
Created: 6 October 2010, Last modified: 16 November 2022
Last updated: 7 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/vic/biogs/E000636b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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