Beemar Yumba Aboriginal Children’s Hostel was a residential care service at Cherbourg funded by the Queensland Department of Child Safety from around 1984 to 2010. It accommodated children between the ages of 5 years and 15 years, who required out of home care due to statutory intervention or parental agreement. All children and young people were referred to Beemar Yumba Hostel by the Department of Child Safety. The hostel opened after the boys’ dormitory at Cherbourg was closed in 1982. The “run-down” hostel building was replaced with a new $1.1m 12-bed shelter in 2005 (ABC news, 2004). In 2009, it became part of the Cherbourg Historical Precinct (Cherbourg Memory website). Beemar Yumba Hostel Aboriginal Corporation, which ran the hostel, was deregistered in November 2010.
The new building, funded by the Queensland State Government in 2004 accommodated 12 children. The facility also incorporated a carers’ residence and administrative offices.
In 2021, the Queensland government has agreed to be a funder of last resort for this institution. This means that although the institution is now defunct, it is participating in the National Redress Scheme, and the government has agreed to pay the institution’s share of costs of providing redress to a person (as long as the government is found to be equally responsible for the abuse a person experienced).
From
c.1984
To
2010
Alternative Names
Beemar Yumba Aboriginal Children's Hostel
1985 - 2010
Beemar Yumba Maud Phillips Memorial Children's Shelter was situated at 54 Barambah Avenue, Cherbourg, Queensland (Building State unknown)
