Woodville Spastic Centre

The Woodville Spastic Centre was the new name given to the Woodville Spastic Children’s Home around 1960. Run by the South Australian Spastic Paralysis Welfare Association it provided day training and respite accommodation for children with disabilities. Services began to be decentralised from the Woodville site in the 1980s. The residential Nursing Home at the Woodville Spastic Centre was closed in the early 1990s.

The Woodville Spastic Centre was the new name given to the Woodville Spastic Children’s Home in the late 1950s or early 1960s. It was run by the South Australian Spastic Paralysis Welfare Association (SASPWA) and provided day education and training and respite accommodation for children with disabilities who were considered at the time to be ‘severely handicapped’. It also may have provided accommodation for children from the country who were attending the school at Ashford House.

Funds raised by the Miss Australia Quest in the 1950s and 1960s enabled the expansion of the centre.

In the 1970s the need for more forms of accommodation for people with disabilities became apparent and in 1977 the first Hostel was opened at King Street, Mile End. In 1978 the James A Nelson Centre, named after a past president of the Association, was opened on the original Woodville Road site. It incorporated a kindergarten and primary school to provide education, training and treatment.

In 1981 Stage 2 of the James A Nelson Centre was opened incorporating a resource centre, multi-purpose hall and swimming pool. Greater emphasis on disability rights in the 1980s lead to the decentralisation of the Woodville Spastic Centre and its services. Throughout the 80s and into the early 90s services at Woodville moved away from institutionalised care. It began to provide services regionally and supported people with a disability living within the wider community. In 1982 Woodville Spastic Centre stopped expanding and SASPWA began to expand its services, taking over two suburban day centres, ‘Gullywinds’ at Ingle Farm, which was renamed Albara Road Cottage, and ‘Seawinds’ at Christies Beach. In 1983 the South Australian Spastic Paralysis Welfare Association was renamed the Spastic Centres of South Australia, SCOSA.

In the 1990s SCOSA and the Crippled Children’s Association worked together to remove duplication of services. This lead to the closure of the Nursing Home at the Woodville Spastic Centre. In 1993 the James A Nelson Centre at the Woodville Spastic Centre also closed.