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Western Australia - Organisation

Fitzroy Crossing Mission (1952 - 1987)

From
1952
To
1987
Categories
Home, Mission and Protestant

Fitzroy Crossing Mission was established by the United Aborigines Mission in 1952. Children at the mission were under the under the guardianship of the heads of the departments responsible for Aboriginal welfare until 1963. The mission lands and holdings were transferred to the Tjunjura Indigenous Community in 1987.

Details

Fitzroy Crossing Mission was established by the United Aborigines Mission (UAM) on the site of a 'feeding depot' that was run by the Department of Native Affairs from September 1950. In 1951, the UAM was invited by the Department to begin a Christian mission on the site and by 1953 the mission was underway. The original residents included one child. Children at the mission were under the guardianship of the heads of the departments responsible for Aboriginal welfare until 1963.

Some children and adults from Moola Bulla were transferred to the Fitroy Crossing Mission when Moola Bulla closed in 1955.

At first, there were only shanties for accommodation but over time a children's boarding hostel and school were built. After 1972, the responsibility for children who were 'native wards' was transferred from the Department of Native Welfare to the Department for Community Welfare. Annual reports of this and subsequent departments note grants-in-aid for various improvements to the facilities at the mission.

In 1987, the UAM transferred its lease and mission facilities to the Tjunjura Indigenous Community.

Events

1952 - 1987
Location - Fitzroy Crossing Mission was established on Native Reserve No.9656, Fitzroy Crossing. Location: Fitzroy Crossing

Publications

Journals

  • United Aborigines Mission (ed.), The United Aborigines messenger, 1929-1987. Details

Online Resources

Sources used to compile this entry: 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; Longworth, Alison, Was it worthwhile?, An historical analysis of five women missionaries and their encounters with the Nyungar people of south-west Australia, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia, 2005, http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/163/2/02Whole.pdf. pp.298-299.; State Solicitor's Office of Western Australia, 'pp.48, 88', Guide to Institutions Attended by Aboriginal People in Western Australia, Government of Western Australia, 2005, http://web.archive.org/web/20140126131607/http://www.dpc.wa.gov.au/lantu/MediaPublications/Documents/Guide-to-Institutions-attended-by-Aboriginal-people-in-WA-2005.pdf; 'Western Australia Protectors Reports 1899-1959', in To Remove and Protect: Aboriginal Lives Under Control [website], Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, National Library of Australia, http://aiatsis.gov.au/collections/collections-online/digitised-collections/remove-and-protect/western-australia. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Native Welfare 1959 p.8..

Prepared by: Debra Rosser