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Department of Families, Youth and Community Care, State Government of Queensland

The Department of Families, Youth and Community Care was previously known as the Department of Family and Community Services. The department’s responsibilities included a range of services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, neglected or abused children, juveniles in conflict with the law, people with disabilities, older people, the homeless, disadvantaged, and families in…

Child Safety Department, State Government of Queensland

The Child Safety Department was created in February 2004 when the Families Department (including the Child Protection Branch) was abolished and its functions transferred to two newly-created departments: Communities Department, and Child Safety Department. On 26 March 2009 the Child Safety Department (Child Protection Services) was abolished and its functions transferred to the Department of…

Boys’ Home

The Boys’ Home was established in April 1890 in the South Brisbane home of Mr and Mrs Thompson. It was run by a Committee of private citizens. In late 1897 it moved to a property named ‘Rowallan’ at 84 Kedron Park Road, Wooloowin. In 1906, under Canon EC Osborn, the home moved to a nine-acre…

Communities Department, State Government of Queensland

The Communities Department was created on 12 February 2004. The Families Department was abolished and its functions transferred to two new departments; Communities Department and Child Safety Department. On 26 March 2009, the Communities Department absorbed the functions of the abolished Child Safety Department. Under Departmental Arrangements Notice (No. 1) 2012, the Department of Communities…

Brisbane Servants’ Home

The Brisbane Servants’ Home, 166 Ann Street, Brisbane, was established by Lady Bowen and a group of private citizens in 1865 (including Mary Ann Douglas, wife of Legislative Assembly member John Douglas). It provided a home for single adult females who had migrated to Queensland and were awaiting employment as domestic servants. The building was…

Royal Queensland Bush Children’s Health Scheme

The Royal Queensland Bush Children’s Health Scheme (BUSHkids) was founded in 1935 by the Governor of Queensland, Sir Leslie Orme Wilson, to meet the health needs of children living in bush communities. Children were sent to seaside holiday homes for a period of six weeks. During this time they received medical and dental treatment if…

Catholic Daughters of Australia

In 1927 Archbishop James Duhig approached the Ladies Committee of the Seamen’s Catholic Club and suggested the formation of a branch of the Catholic Daughters of Australia (CDA).The inaugural meeting of the Catholic Daughters of Australia, now known as the Catholic Women’s League (CWL) of Queensland, was held on the 10th September 1927. Their motto,…

The Open Brethren Assembly

The Open Brethren are a section of the Christian Brethren, an evangelical protestant church with no ordained ministers and a strong lay involvement in their activities. They originated in England and Ireland in the 1820s, and by the 1850s had spread to Australia. They do not have a central administrative body or hierarchical leadership, and…

Children’s Services Department, State Government of Queensland

The Children’s Services Department was established in 1966 to promote, safeguard and protect the well-being of the children and youth of the state through a comprehensive and coordinated program of child and family welfare. Previously, child and family welfare was the responsibility of the State Children Department, a sub-department of the Labour and Industry Department….

Catholic Family Welfare Bureau (Archdiocese of Brisbane)

The Catholic Family Welfare Bureau in Queensland was formed in 1958 by Archbishop of Brisbane James Duhig. It grew out of an organisation called the Catholic Marriage Advisory Council. In 1984, the organisation became known as Centre Care (later updated again to Centacare in 1991). The Catholic Family Welfare Bureau grew out of a lay…