Gordon Homes for Boys

The Gordon Homes for Boys opened in Highett in 1951. Formerly, services had been provided at the Gordon Institute in Melbourne. The Homes accommodated boys aged between 5 and 14 in cottage homes. In 1969, the Home became the Gordon Homes for Boys and Girls.

The Gordon Homes for Boys were located on the Nepean Highway in Highett.

It was reported in The Age that in 1954 there were 42 boys between the ages of 4 and 18 living at the Gordon Homes for Boys. The majority of boys lived in one of two cottages run by cottage ‘parents’; Fort Cottage housed boys up to 10 years of age and King Cottage housed boys between 11 and 14 years old. The older boys lived in the ‘William Shum Hostel’ where they could “look after themselves”.

In July 1956, the ‘Gordon Boys’ Cottages’ was declared an approved children’s home under the Children’s Welfare Act 1954.

In 1962 an existing house in Rowans Road adjoining the home was bought and converted to a working boys hostel.

The new Homes at Highett reflected a philosophical change in child welfare, away from dormitory-style accommodation, towards cottage homes. The Homes shifted to a model of ‘scattered family group homes’ in 1967 and eight group homes were operating by the early 1970s enabling accommodation of girls and sibling groups.

From 1969, The Gordon Homes for Boys was known as The Gordon Homes for Boys and Girls.

National Redress Scheme for people who have experienced institutional child sexual abuse

In 2021, the Victorian 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).