Brookton Cottage was a group Home established by Centrecare Children's Cottages in about 1979. It offered family-type Homes to Aboriginal babies and children aged up to 15 years, often in sibling groups. They were referred by the department responsible for child welfare, or as private admissions. Brookton Cottage closed around 1988.
Brookton Cottage was one of the group Homes established by Centrecare Children's Cottages from 1979 to 1980, to provide culturally-appropriate accommodation and support for Aboriginal children. When the cottages first opened, children were aged 0-5 years but by 1985 children aged 0-17 years were able to be admitted.
From 1985, Centrecare staff were concerned that children living at the Brookton Cottage were facing discrimination in the town, and that there was a lack of local resources to adequately support young people who may have come to Brookton after time in detention, or after multiple other placements. The Brookton Cottage closed around 1988.
From at least 1983, possibly earlier, Brookton Cottage had Aboriginal cottage parents. When Brookton closed, the cottage parents moved to one of Centrecare Children's Cottages in Northam.
Sources used to compile this entry: Djooraminda [Document], Date: February 1997; Information Services, Department for Community Development, Signposts: A Guide for Children and Young People in Care in WA from 1920, Government of Western Australia, 2004, https://signposts.communities.wa.gov.au//pdf/pdf.aspx.
Prepared by: Debra Rosser
Created: 15 March 2011, Last modified: 20 July 2018
Last updated: 17 October 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/wa/biogs/WE00037b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License