Archives



Brighouse, Grange, South Australia

This is an image showing the from of the Lady Norrie Junior Red Cross Home, also referred to as Brighouse. It was originally published in the March-April 1947 issue of the Australian Red Cross Junior Magazine.

Lady Hore-Ruthven Home, Henley Beach, S. Australia

This is an image showing the exterior of one of the buildings at the Lady Hore-Ruthven Junior Red Cross Home. It was originally published in the March-April 1947 issue of the Australian Red Cross Junior Magazine.

Annexe

Annexe is a term used to describe a smaller residential facility that is part of a larger institution. For example, the Victoria Park (Riverbank) Annexe was part of the youth detention facility, Riverbank, even though it was located many miles distant. Click here to see the full Find & Connect glossary

Custodial Care

Custodial Care describes a model that was historically used on many people with intellectual disabilities or mental illness. In a custodial care model, a person was not given any treatment to help them improve from their condition at admission. Many children with intellectual disabilities in psychiatric hospitals up to the 1960s suffered as a result…

Receiving Agency

Receiving Agency was the name given to the organisation named as the custodian of children who were sent to Australia as migrants from the United Kingdom or Malta. The term is used mostly for post-World War Two migration, but includes some organisations that were responsible for children who came earlier in the century. Click here…

Farm School

The Farm School was a model of residential ‘care’ for children, based in a rural area, which trained children (typically boys) in agricultural duties. A Western Australian newspaper article from 1935 described the purpose of farm schools: The policy has been to remove unemployed youth from the scrap heap of idleness, train them, and place…

Borstal

A borstal (or borstall) was a reformatory for young offenders aged about 16 to 21. The term was used between about 1920 and 1970. Click here to see the full Find & Connect glossary

Emergency Care

Emergency care, being short term, immediate care for children in need, was provided in different ways. Government and non-government Homes provided emergency care. Emergency foster care was also sometimes available. A state’s main children’s ‘depot’ or receiving Home was sometimes used for emergency care. Click here to see the full Find & Connect glossary

Lying-in Home

Lying-in Home was a term to describe a maternity home from the late nineteenth century, a place ‘for the accommodation of females during their confinement and lying-in’, to quote the Western Australian State Children Act 1907. At a lying-in home, a mother could give birth with the help of a midwife (who might not have…

Approved Children’s Home

Approved Children’s Home was a term applied to Homes that had been certified for the care of children under the relevant state legislation. In Tasmania, under the Child Welfare Act 1960, Approved Children’s Homes were run by volunteers on a not-for-profit basis. The government paid Managers maintenance for each child accommodated in the Home. In…