The Aboriginal Orphans Act (No 12 of 7 and 8 Vic, 1844) was passed and commenced on 28 August 1844. Its full title was: An Ordinance to Provide for the Protection, Maintenance, and Up-Bringing of Orphans and other Destitute Children of the Aborigines. It was repealed by the Aborigines Act 1911 on 7 December 1911….
Elizabeth Downs Cottage was opened by the Adelaide Central Methodist Mission at Elizabeth Downs in 1976. In the mid to late 1970s, as a response to the government’s push to close large congregate care institutions and replace them with smaller group care, the Methodist Church closed Lentara and established a number of Cottage Homes in…
The National Archives of Australia (NAA) was established in 1998. It was formerly known as the Australian Archives. The National Archives collects, preserves and makes publicly available records of the Australian government. The collection includes records related to family history research, as well as records relevant specifically to child welfare and child migration. The head…
Industrial Schools were institutions where children could receive industrial training. It was a model borrowed from England. The central idea was that neglected children with living parents needed to be taught to be industrious and be able to support themselves in the future. Notions about poverty in the nineteenth century saw poor people as lazy…
The Stolen Generations Reparations Scheme was established by the South Australian government in 2015. The Scheme was for South Australian members of the Stolen Generations who were forcibly removed from their families and culture. Under the criteria of the Scheme, people who were Aboriginal and removed from their families in South Australia before 31 December…
In December 2018, the UK government announced they were establishing a payment scheme for former British Child Migrants. The scheme was for people who had been separated from their families and sent overseas as part of the UK government’s participation in child migration programs. The payment scheme was established in response to the Interim Report…
The National Redress Scheme was established by the Commonwealth government in response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It is administered by the Commonwealth Department of Social Services. The NRS was established in 2018 and was announced that it would run for 10 years. The National Redress…
The first Colonial Surgeon of South Australia was appointed in 1836. The duties of the Colonial Surgeon’s Office of South Australia include overseeing and advising the Government in relation to public health matters and sanitation, managing the Public Hospital, and acting as superintendent to the Lunatic Asylum. The Colonial Surgeon’s Office was also called the…
The Inspector General of Hospitals Office was established in 1914, replacing the Colonial Surgeon’s Office. The Inspector General conducted visits and inspections of the public hospitals, asylums, and mental hospitals, and the superintendents of these institutions reported to the Inspector. In 1940 the Inspector General of Hospitals Office was replaced by the Hospitals Department.
Training Homes (also known as Training Schools) were institutions where children and young people could learn habits of hard work and respectability, as well as skills suited to the workforce. In the early twentieth century, the work skills usually involved domestic service for girls and farm labour for boys. Later on the occupations considered suitable…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
