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Burnside Presbyterian Homes for Children

The Burnside Presbyterian Homes for Children was formally known as Burnside Presbyterian Orphan Homes. The name change occurred in 1955. Originally a complex of cottage homes, Burnside began to provide foster care and other sorts of care in the 1960s and 1970s. It changed its name to Burnside Homes for Children when the Uniting Church…

Burnside Presbyterian Orphan Homes

Burnside Presbyterian Orphan Homes, on Pennant Hills Road at North Parramatta, were children’s homes founded in 1911 by philanthropist Sir James Burns. Burnside pioneered cottage care in Australia and was a functioning village, with 14 cottages, all grand in scale, its own farm, hospital and school, and a gymnasium and swimming pool. In 1955 Burnside…

Bexley Boys’ Home

Bexley Boys’ Home was a Salvation Army home that was located on the corner of Kingsland Road and Barnsbury Grove at Bexley North. It commenced as a Probationary Home for Boys in 1915, taking boys referred from the courts. It became a boys’ home in 1931. It was renamed Kolling Memorial Boys’ Home in 1967…

Gill Memorial Boys’ Home

The Gill Memorial Boys’ Home was a Salvation Army Boys’ Home located at Auburn Street, Goulburn from September 1936. It was opened after the closure of the Salvation Army’s Dee Why Boys’ Home. It held around 90 boys at a time, aged from three to 18 years. In 1980 the Home was restructured and changed,…

Canowindra Girls’ Home

The Canowindra Girls’ Home, also known as Lyndon House, was opened in 1942 by the Salvation Army at Canowindra. Its first residents were girls from Arncliffe Girls’ Home (The Nest) and The Fold at Marrickville and two boys and a girl from Bethesda Maternity Hospital who had been moved from Sydney because of World War…

St Joseph’s Girls’ Home

St Joseph’s Girls Home was established in ‘Gladstone House’ at Lane Cove (Gore Hill) in 1900. The home was a replacement for St Joseph’s Providence at The Rocks. It housed around 90 girls aged 5 to 15. By the 1970s the Home was divided into units for small group accommodation. St Joseph’s Girls’ Home closed…

St Brigid’s Girls’ Home, Ryde

St Brigid’s Girls’ Home opened in 1898 at Ryde and was operated by the Sisters of Mercy Parramatta Congregation. It housed girls aged 5 to 15 years. St Brigid’s Girls’ Home closed in 1978. St Brigid’s Girls’ Home was opened, under the patronage of Cardinal Moran, on 17 June 1898. Records of the Home are…

St John’s Orphanage, Thurgoona

St John’s Orphanage was founded by the Albury Foundation of the Sisters of Mercy in 1882 at Thurgoona. It was also known as St John’s Home, Wirlinga. The Orphanage first housed girls aged 5 to 16 years and later accommodated 30 British war orphans. In later years it cared for both boys and girls. From…

St Vincent’s Boys’ Home

St Vincent’s Boys’ Home was established in 1891 by the St Vincent de Paul Society. It was originally located in Surry Hills as a refuge for homeless children. It then moved to Redfern, then to Five Dock, and finally to Westmead in 1896. From 1896 until 1968, the Home was run as a joint venture…

Murray-Dwyer Boys’ Home

Murray-Dwyer Boys’ Home (Murray-Dwyer Orphanage) was established in 1933 by the Catholic Diocese of Maitland at Tourle Street, Mayfield West (Newcastle). It was conducted by the Daughters of Charity. It cared for boys between the ages of 6 and 16 years including 30 child migrant boys from the United Kingdom who were settled in Australia….