The Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs was formed in 1972. As a result of the creation of this department, the Federal Government took over responsibility for all issues related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. Policy and planning functions which had previously been the responsibility of the States were transferred to the…
The Lutheran Church is a branch of the Protestant church, and was founded in Germany in the 16th Century by Reformationist Martin Luther. The Lutheran Church was first established in Australia by German Lutherans arriving in South Australia in 1838. Separate Lutheran churches were founded in Victoria from the 1840s, and Queensland from the 1850s….
Sisters of the Resurrection is a Polish Order of Catholic nuns that was established in Rome in 1891. In Melbourne an order of the Sisters of the Resurrection was established in 1952 and ran ‘Resurrection House’ in Essendon from 1952 to 1971. Between 1956 and 1978, the Resurrection Sisters ran St Stanislaus House in Royal…
The Salesians of Don Bosco are an international organisation of Catholic priests and brothers who work with disadvantaged and marginalised young people. They were founded by the Italian priest Saint John Bosco in the mid nineteenth century. The first Salesians came to the Kimberley region of Australia in 1922 in order to run a mission….
The Salesians of Don Bosco Province Centre Archives holds records related to the work of Salesians across Australia and New Zealand. The collection includes records relating to Boys Town Engadine (NSW), and St John’s Boys Town at Brooklyn Park (SA). Access Conditions The Salesians of Don Bosco Province Centre Archives is located in Ascot Vale,…
The National Archives of Australia (NAA) holds many records which provide information of interest to former child migrants. The records relating to individual child and youth migrants are essentially those concerned with their entry into Australia rather than the day-to-day care once they had arrived. The NAA also holds a number of policy and administrative…
Eugenics was an influential doctrine popular from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Eugenics refers to the philosophy and practice of selective breeding of humans with desirable (or “superior”) hereditary traits. While not discounting the role of environmental factors, it placed considerable emphasis on heredity in shaping an individual’s characteristics. The ideas within eugenics…
Closed adoption refers to the practice of sealing an adopted child’s original birth certificate and issuing a new birth certificate when the child was adopted. This new certificate included the name of the child and their adoptive parents. The identity of the adopted child’s original parents was hidden. This practice meant that many people didn’t…
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…
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