Methodist Homes for Children Logo, 1960s and 1970s, 1960s - 1978s, courtesy of Uniting Church Archives, Western Australia.
Details
The Methodist Homes for Children was the name given to the Methodist Church agency that ran two Homes in Western Australia: the Methodist Children's Home at Victoria Park (from 1922), and the Methodist Boys' Home in the hills east of Perth at Werribee (from 1929). Over time, a number of cottages were opened on the Victoria Park site: Mofflyn House (1925), and Wesley, Guild, Dowerin and Meckering Cottages (1952). In 1962, the Werribee property was closed and the Victoria Park became the main site known as 'Mofflyn'. During the 1960s and 70s, the hostels and cottages opened in Perth metropole included: Cooinda, Warminda, Allandale, Bourkedale, and Meribah. In 1977, the Methodist Homes for Children became the Uniting Church Child and Family Care Services.
The Methodist Children's Home opened in Victoria Park in 1922 and the Boys' Home at Werribee opened in 1929. The Boys' Home became known as 'Werribee Farm School' and then as 'Allandale'.
From the mid-1950s, the Methodist Homes for Children actively participated in housing Aboriginal children from northern WA. In the Annual Report 1954/1955 (p.4), the Director, Norman Hicks, wrote that the Commonwealth Government's policy of bringing 'selected half caste children' to the south-west to assimilate with the white population was 'wise and timely'. Methodist Homes for Children told the government that they were 'prepared to receive one in five such boys at Werribee and one girl per cottage, but not more than two per cottage at Victoria Park, of such approved selected half-caste children from Croker Island and Millingimbie or similar places'.
In 1962, after the Werribee property was closed and the land was sold, funds were used to develop more cottages in Victoria Park, where the main site (with all its cottages) became known as 'Mofflyn'.
In the1960s and '70s the Methodist Homes for Children opened hostels and scatter cottages in the Perth metropolitan area: Cooinda, Warminda, Allandale, Bourkedale, and Meribah.
After the Methodist Church merged with the Presbyterian and Congregational churches to become the Uniting Church in 1977, the Methodist Homes for Children became the Uniting Church Child and Family Care Services.
The Uniting Church Child and Family Care Services, which was part of the Uniting Church's 'caring services', eventually became known as Mofflyn Child and Family Care Services. In 2006, Mofflyn merged with other Uniting Church agencies to become UnitingCare West.
1922 - 1977 Methodist Homes for Children
1977 - 1984? Uniting Church Child and Family Care Services
1984 - 2006 Mofflyn Child and Family Care Services
2006 - Uniting WA
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![Moss Report [Excerpt] - Pocket Money](../objects/thumbs/tn_WD0000298 Moss Implementation Extract Pocket Money.png)
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![Moss Report Implementation [Excerpt] - Health Examinations](../objects/thumbs/tn_WD0000300 Moss Implementation Health Examinations.png)
![The 'Homes' Herald 1965 [Methodist Homes for Children]](../objects/thumbs/tn_WD0000198 The Homes Herald 1965 Vol1 No8.png)
![The 'Homes' Herald, 1966 [Methodist Homes for Children]](../objects/thumbs/tn_WD0000199 The Homes Herald 1966 Vol1 No12.png)
![The 'Homes' Herald, 1970 [Methodist Homes for Children]](../objects/thumbs/tn_WD0000201 The Homes Herald 1970 Vol2 No11.png)
![The 'Homes' Herald, 1974 [Methodist Homes for Children]](../objects/thumbs/tn_WD0000202 The Homes Herald 1974 Vol2 No20.png)
![The 'Homes' Herald, 1978 [Methodist Homes for Children]](../objects/thumbs/tn_WD0000203 The Homes Herald 1978 Vol2 No24.png)
Sources used to compile this entry: 'Methodist Church', The West Australian, 26 February 1921, p. 6, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27957454; Beresford, Marilyn, Uniting the Mission: the story of the merger and creation of UnitingCare West, UnitingCare West, Perth, Western Australia, 2011, 257 pp; Cattermole, Jean, The History of 'Mofflyn' 1909 - 1995, 1995; Goulding, D., Creagh, H. and Jenkins, T., The Barefoot Boys of Werribee: the untold story of the Methodist Home for Children, by those who were there, Uniting Church in Australia, Western Australia, 2009; 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; Methodist Homes for Children (W.A.), Annual report / The Methodist Church of Australia (W.A. Conference), The Methodist Homes for Children, Methodist Homes for Children, Victoria Park, 1955?; Correspondence via email with Debra Rosser called 'Additional info re stolen gen children to Methodist Homes'. A copy of the email is held in the Find & Connect Project project (FACP) files at the University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre.
Prepared by: Debra Rosser
Created: 15 March 2011, Last modified: 23 March 2015
Last updated: 17 October 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/wa/biogs/WE00142b.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
