The Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act 1865 – with the full title “An Act to provide for the establishment of Industrial and Reformatory Schools” (Act no. 8/1865, 29 Vic No.8) set up special schools to educate and care for neglected children and young offenders under the age of 15 years. The Act allowed Indigenous children…
The Orphanages Act 1879 (Act no. 16/1879) was an act to govern Queensland orphanages which were charged with the care, teaching and training of children whose circumstances included death of one or both parents, desertion by parents, or neglect. It was assented to on 2 October 1879 and its full title was “An Act to…
BoysTown, run by the De La Salle Brothers, was established in 1961. It was situated in Telemon Road, Beaudesert. BoysTown accommodated boys aged between 12 and 16 in seven cottages. The Beaudesert residential accommodation closed in 2001, and the buildings were demolished in 2017 or 2018. More than 1,000 boys passed through BoysTown during the…
The De La Salle Brothers is a worldwide religious teaching congregation within the Catholic Church. The De La Salle Brothers arrived in Australia in 1906 to establish Catholic schools. By 1932 a De La Salle school was established in Roma, Queensland, and in 1955 they set up a school and community in Scarborough. In 1961…
Albion Lodge was a children’s Home in Bridge Street, Albion. It was operated by the De La Salle Brothers, in conjunction with BoysTown. It housed boys who had graduated from BoysTown. Albion Lodge opened in 1965 and the first boys moved in on 24 August that year. Albion Lodge closed in 1974. Albion Lodge was…
The Good Shepherd Archive was established in 1983 and is located in Abbotsford, Melbourne, Victoria. The Archive cares for the records of the Good Shepherd Sisters in Australia and New Zealand. The records, from Good Shepherd institutions around Australia, date from 1863 to the present day. The Good Shepherd Archive’s collection includes many records about…
The Junior Red Cross Society was formally established in Australia in 1918, as part of the Australian Red Cross. It was a children’s and youth division, which had regional committees. Various branches of the Junior Red Cross Society set up and ran Homes in various locations around Australia, as part of its peacetime programs. These…
The Aborigines Inland Mission (AIM) was an Evangelical Baptist missionary organisation established by Retta Dixon in 1905. The AIM and its staff ran the St Clair Mission, the Singleton Home, the Native Workers’ Training College and the Singleton Bible Training Institute in New South Wales, as well as the Phillip Creek Mission and the Retta…
On 21 March 2013, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard apologised on behalf of the Australian Government to people affected by forced adoption or removal policies and practices. The national apology was delivered in the Great Hall of Parliament House, Canberra.
The Australian Red Cross was formed on the outbreak of the first World War in 1914 as a branch of the British Red Cross Society. The Australian Junior Red Cross, a subsidiary organisation to the Australian Red Cross, was formally established in New South Wales in 1918. The Junior Red Cross carried out a range…
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