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Case Study 07: Parramatta Training School for Girls, Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Case Study 7: Parramatta Training School for Girls was a public hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, held in Sydney from February to March of 2014. It inquired into the experiences of former child residents at The Parramatta Girls’ Training School in Sydney, and The Institution for Girls in…

Silverton Shelter

Silverton Shelter was run by the State Children’s Relief Department as a remand home for children who had been charged with offences by the police and were awaiting court appointments or being sent to other institutions. The shelter operated out of the old Silverton Gaol, on Burke street, Silverton, about 20km from Broken Hill. It…

Records of Fairbridge Society [copies]

This collection of the Records of the Fairbridge Society contains microfilm and now digitised copies of originals held by the Fairbridge Society, London and Liverpool University Archives, UK. This collection was created as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project. Records in this collection include administrative material relating to the Fairbridge Society, correspondence with the…

Medical experiments

Medical experiments on children in institutions happened in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Australia. The first documented experimentation on children in institutions in Australia was in 1803, where it was reported that John Savage, Assistant Surgeon of the New South Wales Colony, was “trying the effects” of the smallpox vaccine on “some of the…

Declaration of the Rights of the Child

The Declaration of the Rights of the Child set out ten principles related to children’s rights. The Declaration was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 November 1959. Click here to see the full Find & Connect glossary

Inquiry Into Child Migration, Parliament of Australia

On 20 June 2000, on the motion of Senator Andrew Murray, the Senate referred the issue of child migration to the Community Affairs References Committee for inquiry and report. An estimated five to ten thousand child migrants from both Britain and Malta came to Australia between1922 and 1967, most of whom were sent to charitable…

Care Leavers Australasia Network

Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN), founded in 2000 in Sydney, is a support and advocacy group for people brought up in care away from their family as state wards or children raised in Children’s Homes, orphanages or other institutions, or in foster care. CLAN is also for anyone who has a close family member who…

Sisters of the Good Shepherd

The first Good Shepherd Sisters in Australia landed in Melbourne on 24 June 1863. They had travelled from Angers in France at the request of Bishop James Goold of Melbourne, to establish a female rescue home. They purchased a property at Abbotsford, from which they ran an industrial school, commercial laundry, and provided accommodation for…

Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart

The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart is a religious order founded in 1866, at Penola in South Australia. Its first member and Superior was Mary MacKillop. The Sisters were active in several Australian states in education and child welfare, establishing several schools, orphanages and babies’ and children’s Homes. The order of the…

MacKillop Family Services

MacKillop Family Services was established in 1997 to continue the services (foster care, residential care and specialised home-based care services) to children, young people and families previously undertaken by the Sisters of Mercy, the Christian Brothers, and the Sisters of St Joseph. It is a provider of services for children, young people and families in…