The Aborigines Welfare Board was created in 1940, under the Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act 1940. It replaced the Aborigines Protection Board and was supposed to modernise Aboriginal welfare but it continued many of the Protection Board’s policies towards children. It was abolished in 1969 and replaced by the Aborigines Welfare Directorate. Responsibility for Aboriginal children…
The Aborigines Welfare Directorate replaced the Aborigines Welfare Board in 1969. It later became known as the Aborigines Services Branch, Youth and Community Services.
The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) was created in 2007 (formerly, it was known as the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs). FaHCSIA was the government department responsible for the Apology to Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants in November 2009. It also administered the Find and Connect…
The Department of Social Services (DSS) came into being in September 2013. Previously, it was called the Department for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (or FaHCSIA). Within DSS’s programs and services are the Find and Connect services for Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual…
Adoption Information Services came into being in July 2019 when the delivery of local adoptions, inter-country adoptions and information about past adoptions were transferred from the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Justice and Community Safety. Previously, the Victorian government adoption information service was called Family Information, Networks and Discovery…
The Commission for Children and Young People was formed in March 2013 to replace The Office of the Child Safety Commissioner.
On 1 January 2015, the Victorian Government established the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) to integrate health and human services policies, programs and services. The new DHHS brings together the former Department of Health, former Department of Human Services and Sport and Recreation Victoria. DHHS is responsible for dealing with children placed in…
The National Library of Australia in Canberra was formally established by the passage of the National Library Act 1960. Its origins can be traced back to the establishment of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library in 1901. The Library’s role “is to ensure that documentary resources of national significance relating to Australia and the Australian people, as…
The Mental Health Authority came into being in 1962, under the terms of the Mental Health Act 1959. The Authority was responsible for policy relating to mental health and control of what was previously called the Mental Hygiene Branch. Between 1944 and 1978 the Mental Hygiene Branch/Mental Health Authority greatly increased its services to patients…
The Mental Hygiene Branch was established in 1944. It assumed responsibility for those functions previously administered by the Department of Mental Hygiene, namely the development and direction of policy governing the treatment of the mentally ill, the care of the intellectually disabled, the care and treatment of alcohol and drug dependent persons, and for the…