Woodlands Home opened in 1886 in South Preston as a domestic training school for selected girls from the Government Reformatory for Protestant Girls at Pentridge in Coburg. Woodlands, described as a “cottage”, had capacity for eight or nine girls. The objective of Woodlands was for the “better conducted girls” of the Reformatory to spend a…
Kingsbury Farm Reformatory was a training farm for Protestant boys that opened in Newstead in April 1893. It was operated on the ‘family system’, run by a married couple, and had capacity for six boys. Boys were sent to Kingsbury from other reformatories in order to learn practical farm skills, such as land clearing, dam-making,…
Mental deficiency is a term that was commonly used to describe intellectual or developmental disability in the first half of the twentieth century. It was regarded as a disease, and the popular belief was that people who were diagnosed as ‘mentally defective’ needed to be segregated from the community, to receive special ‘care’ and treatment….
“Correspondence files, single number series with ‘B’ [Child Endowment] prefix” is an archival series held by the National Archives of Australia. Its series number is A885. The records in A885 relate to child endowment and family allowances. The records were created by the Commonwealth Department of Social Services. Many of the files document the payment…
In 1951, a British Home Office official named John Moss inspected and reported on Australian and New Zealand institutions where British child migrants were living. Moss spent July-December 1951 travelling around Australia and to New Zealand, inspecting institutions and making recommendations. His report, known as the Moss Report, was submitted to the British government in…
St John’s by the Sea, in Beach Road, Sandringham, was a cottage-style Home for 20 boys. It was run by St John’s Home for Boys. It opened in 1951, was still open in 1954, and possibly closed in 1958. The residents of St John’s by the Sea included child migrants from Britain. The Home was…
South Yarra Hostel was established in a vacant building on the Methodist Babies’ Home site. Run by Wesley Central Mission it was described as a ‘supportive hostel for young people’. The Mission closed down South Yarra Hostel in February 1982. The hostel’s residents were taken on as clients by the Richmond Fellowship of Victoria (a…
Ruthven Hostel was run by the St John’s Home for Boys and Girls in association with the Church of England Boys’ Society. Located in Reservoir, it provided accommodation for 6 to 8 boys. In the 1980s, the Church of England Boys’ Society established the Community Services Foundation Youth Welfare Trust, as a means of attracting…
Happy Days was a Home in Black Rock, run by Melbourne City Mission. It was a Home where groups of children ‘in delicate health’ were sent for a seaside holiday. Happy Days opened on 4 March 1933. Usually, alternating groups of 10 boys or 10 girls went to Happy Days for around a 12 day…
Bates, Smart and McCutcheon Pty Ltd is an archival collection held by University of Melbourne Archives. Bates, Smart and McCutcheon was one of Melbourne’s leading architectural firms. They designed both public and private buildings, including children’s institutions. Access Conditions Before viewing or copying plans in this collection, the architectural firm has to give permission. Contact…
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