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Gunning House

Gunning House at Homebush was a hostel for youth migrants that was set up by the Big Brother Movement in 1951. In its first year of operation 61 newly arrived ‘Little Brothers’ were accommodated for lengthy periods. In 1954, 325 young people were accommodated for varying periods during the year. Gunning House closed around 1982….

Tresillian Vaucluse

Tresillian Vaucluse was established around 1935 or 1936 in Greycliffe House, which is within Nielsen Park, Vaucluse. It was a mothercraft home run by Tresillian. It cared for mothers with babies and for babies who needed nursing. By the 1960s it looked after around 110 mothers and 177 babies a year. Unmarried mothers worked at…

St Carthage’s College for Young Ladies

St Carthage’s College for Young Ladies was established at Brooklyn in 1907 by the Sisters of Mercy North Sydney Congregation. It was a boarding school and home for girls from isolated properties. St Carthage’s was converted to a residential children’s home and renamed St Catherine’s Orphanage in 1931. St Carthage’s College for Young Ladies was…

Tresillian North Home

Tresillian Willoughby is a Tresillian Family Care Centre. It was established as a Mothercraft Nursing Home in 1927, to support mothers and care for babies, and in 2012 continues to provide support to parents of young children. In the 1960s Tresillian North Home could accommodate 10 mothers with breastfed babies, eight artificially fed babies and…

Tresillian Wollstonecraft

Tresillian Wollstonecraft, or Carpenter House, was a Tresillian Mothercraft Home that was established in 1940. It was a mothercraft training home for nurses and, by the 1960s, housed around 200 mothers and 260 babies during the course of a year. In 2012 Tresillian Wollstonecraft was still providing services to mothers and babies from Carpenter House….

Hall for Children

The Hall for Children was established in 1979 at Hazelbrook, between Queens Road and Hall Parade, in a building called “Oaklands”. It was a non-government home for children and adults with disabilities described as having “high support needs” (Suffer the Children, p.1). From the time of its opening until 1994, it was funded by the…

Lady Edeline Hospital for Sick Babies

The Lady Edeline Hospital for Sick Babies was a government children’s hospital at Nielsen Park, in Vaucluse, in an historic house called ‘Greycliffe’. It began in 1914. It had 40 cots and was intended as a hospital to nurse babies who were sick with gastroenteritis, which was common in Sydney summer. It closed in 1936…

Tresillian Mothercraft Homes, Royal Society for the Welfare of Mothers and Babies

Tresillian is an organisation that provides support to families caring for children under the age of five years. Tresillian’s proper name is the Royal Society for Mothers and Babies, which was formed in 1918 to save the lives of infants by promoting health and education. Tresillian Homes were affiliated with most of the hospitals and…

Charlton Boys’ Home, Ashfield

Charlton Boys’ Home, Ashfield was established in 1966 by the Anglican Home Mission Society. It had earlier been known as the Charlton Memorial Home, located in Glebe, and moved into a property that was formerly the Milleewa Boys’ Home. In the late 1970s this property became known as Robinson Home. Like its predecessor, Charlton Boys’…

Frank Weston interviewed by Catherine Johnson in the NSW Bicentennial oral history collection [sound recording]

Born in Sydney, Weston speaks of his family background, childhood, break up of parents’ marriage, life in Sydney, being placed in Westmead [St Vincent’s] boys home by his mother, being classed as “a naughty boy”, conditions, life and work, education, in home ; running away and his life out of care, including marriage. Access Conditions…