Archives



Receiving Home, Darwin

The Receiving Home, Darwin, was opened by the Government in 1957 as a temporary institution to replace the Fannie Bay Receiving Home. Children of all ages taken into the care of the State were placed at the Receiving Home while waiting placement in other institutions or into foster care. It also operated at times as…

The Open Door

The Open Door was a maternity home run by the Salvation Army in North Fremantle from 1903 to 1922. From 1911, it was also known as Hopetoun. Originally established for ‘unmarried mothers’, The Open Door also provided general maternity services, with single and married women in separate sections. In 1922, Salvation Army’s maternity services moved…

Graceville Centre

The Graceville Centre was the new name given in 1974 to what had been known since 1903 as Graceville. A Salvation Army Rescue Home, Graceville had replaced Cornelie Home at Highgate. By1974 the Graceville Centre in Highgate was a complex of buildings accommodating: mothers and children temporarily; women aged 16-25 for alcohol rehabilitation; and, young…

Salvation Army Home for Neglected Girls, Perth

The Salvation Army Home for Neglected Girls was established in 1894 in Claisebrook Road, Perth (East Perth), for women and girls with a range of needs. The Home moved to Summers Street, East Perth in 1895. In 1898, new premises were built and the Home moved to Cornelie House in Lincoln Street (North Perth, Highgate)….

Cornelie Home

Cornelie Home was the name given in 1898 to the Salvation Army’s rescue Home when it moved to North Perth (Highgate) from Perth (East Perth). It accommodated single mothers, pregnant women, elderly women and women who had been released from prison. In 1903 the maternity program transferred to The Open Door, (which later became ‘Hillcrest’),…

Women’s Home, Fremantle

The Women’s Home in Fremantle was established by the government as a continuation of the Female Home (Women’s Home, Poor House) in Perth. Children and women who were intellectually disabled, destitute or pregnant and destitute, were moved from Perth into the buildings that had previously been the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum. It seems that very few…

Female Home [Poor House, Perth]

The Female Home, or Poor House, began in 1851, and was then named the ‘Servants’ Home’. From 1854, destitute or orphaned children under 10 years of age were admitted. It was first run by the Ladies’ Friendly Society, but by the mid-1850s was government-run. From 1902, children were instead admitted to the Government Industrial School…

Boulder Rescue Home

Run by The Salvation Army, the Boulder Rescue Home provided an alternative to gaol or an industrial school for girls and young women who were charged by the Police or Children’s Courts from 1904 to around 1914. Children charged with neglect, vulnerable young women and people committed for offences all seem to have been taken…

House of Mercy

The House of Mercy was established in Perth in 1891 as a ‘non-denominational charity for single mothers’. It was run by a private management committee. Women were expected to work in the commercial laundry at the Home, which was funded by these activities and charitable donations. The name was changed to the Alexandra Home for…

Home of the Good Shepherd, Leederville

The Home of the Good Shepherd, Leederville was established in 1902 in Perth by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd for ‘unfortunate’ women and girls. The Home supported itself by operating a commercial laundry In 1904 the institution moved to Leederville to a purpose built property which included an industrial laundry. The Home of the…