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Victoria - Glossary Term

Babies' Home

  • Nursery, with babies and nurses, St Joseph's Broadmeadows

    Nursery, with babies and nurses, St Joseph's Broadmeadows, 1962, courtesy of MacKillop Family Services.
    Details

Categories
Type of 'care'
Alternative Names
  • Foundling Hospital
  • Infant Asylum

The term 'babies' Home' generally refers to institutions for children under the age of three. In the nineteenth century, such institutions were often known as infant asylums. Some of the more well-known babies' Homes in Victoria were actually not officially named in this way. Bethany Babies' Home in Geelong was the Geelong Female Refuge until 1928. The institution at Berry Street was not officially a 'babies' Home' until 1964. The official name of the Broadmeadows Babies' Home was St Joseph's Foundling Hospital. These institutions were usually associated with services for unmarried mothers, and often functioned (officially or not) as adoption agencies. Staff in babies' Homes were usually trained nurses. Some institutions also provided training for mothercraft nurses.

Publications

Books

  • Tierney, Leonard, Children Who Need Help, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1963. Details

Online Resources

Photos

Nursery, with babies and nurses, St Joseph's Broadmeadows
Title
Nursery, with babies and nurses, St Joseph's Broadmeadows
Type
Image
Date
1962
Source
MacKillop Family Services

Details

Sources used to compile this entry: Tierney, Leonard, Children Who Need Help, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1963.

Prepared by: Cate O'Neill