Albany Boys' Hostel

The Albany Boys’ Hostel was an Aboriginal education and employment hostel that admitted male Aboriginal teenagers from south western Australia, from approximately 1970. It was intended to house young adolescents to further their education and training, and enable them to obtain suitable employment in the south west. There were 11 boys in residence when responsibility for the hostel was transferred from the Pallottines to the Catholic Diocese of Bunbury in 1978.

According to the State Solicitor’s Office in Western Australia (Guide to Institutions Attended by Aboriginal People in Western Australia 2005, p.108), the Pallottine’s Boys’ Hostel, Albany was run by the Catholic male religious order, the Society of the Catholic Apostolates (Pallottines) at the request of the Commissioner of Native Welfare. In 1968, development of the hostel began, with funds contributed by the government, the Lotteries Commission and the Pallottines.

The intention of the Pallottines was to provide similar accommodation in Albany as was provided at the Pallottine Mission Centre, Rossmoyne.

Responsibility for the Albany Boys’ Hostel was transferred from the Pallottines to the Catholic Diocese of Bunbury in 1978. Files created after this time by child welfare agencies show that the hostel was also known as ‘Tintinara’.