The St Vincent de Paul Orphanage, Prahran was established in 1854 by Father Gerald Ward under the auspices of the St Vincent de Paul Society. It was located off the High Holborn Road, later known as High Street, Prahran. The Orphanage provided temporary accommodation for a small number of Catholic children who were orphaned, or considered abandoned, destitute or neglected. The St Vincent de Paul Orphanage, Prahran closed in 1857, when the St Vincent de Paul Orphanage in Emerald Hill opened.
Legal News in The Age from 8 October 1855 includes a description of the Orphanage by Father Ward:
...comprising three houses, with a garden attached...a respectable person, of mature age, acts as matron, and is assisted by two female servants. There are five female children and a large number of boys now in the institution...They are sent to the Catholic Denominational School at Prahran, near by. The intention is to apprentice the boys, and to put out the girls respectably in the world when old enough to earn their living.
1854 - 1857 St Vincent de Paul Orphanage, Prahran
1857 - 1874 St Vincent de Paul Orphanage
1874 - 1962 St Vincent de Paul's Girls' Orphanage
1874 - 1967 St Vincent de Paul Orphanage for Boys
1962 - 1992 St Vincent de Paul Children's Home
1967 - 1997 St Vincent de Paul Boys' Home
1992 - 1997 St Vincent de Paul Child and Family Services
1997 - MacKillop Family Services
1997 - MacKillop Family Services
Sources used to compile this entry: Legal News, The Age, 8 October 1855, 6 pp, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154892630; 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Guide to out-of-home care services 1940-2000 - Volume One: Agency Descriptions, Department of Human Services, Unpublished, November 2001, https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/DHS.3004.011.0367.pdf; Twigg, Karen, 'St Vincent de Paul Orphanage', in eMelbourne: the city past and present, Encyclopedia of Melbourne online, The University of Melbourne, 2008, http://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM01317b.htm.
Prepared by: Nicola Laurent
Created: 8 February 2022
Last updated: 7 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/vic/biogs/ENT0095b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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