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Lutanda Children’s Services

Lutanda Children’s Services is a Christian Brethren community service organisation that was established in 1954. Lutanda Children’s Services commenced by supporting Lutanda Children’s Home and opening Camp Toukley as a holiday home. From 1984, Lutanda Children’s Services provided care in family group homes in Baulkham Hills and Glenmore Park. In 2013, the family group homes…

Peat Island Hospital

Peat Island Hospital was a government run institution established in 1973. It was previously known as Peat and Milson Islands Mental Hospital. In 1989 it became known as Peat Island Centre. Women began living on Peat Island on respite in 1976, and permanently from 1978 onwards. Laila Ellmoos notes that in this era female residents…

Peat and Milson Islands Mental Hospital

Peat and Milson Islands Mental Hospital was a government run institution established in 1936. It was previously known as the Rabbit Island Mental Hospital. It was run by the Inspector General of Mental Hospitals until 1958. In 1973 it had a name change and became known as Peat Island Hospital. Peat and Milson Islands Mental…

Eddy’s Out West

Eddy’s Out West was established around 1981 in Blacktown, Western Sydney to provide short and long-term accommodation and support services to young people aged 12-18 who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

Rabbit Island Hospital for the Insane

Rabbit Island Hospital for the Insane was a government run institution established in 1910 and the first male patients were transferred there on 24 March 1911, “initially in order to provide temporary residences for male patients of the ‘chronic’ class” (State Records Authority of New South Wales). The patients admitted to Rabbit Island came from…

Bethcar Children’s Home

Bethcar Children’s Home was a state-run foster care facility, located near Brewarrina. Bethcar was established in 1969, and was run by the Department of Youth and Community Services (which had assumed responsibility for Aboriginal children in 1969). In 1986 Bethcar moved from Brewarrina to Orange. Bethcar closed in 1989. In his poem “Mission Breed”, David…

Myee Home

Myee Home was in Myee, a house in Arncliffe that was formerly the Myee Babies Home or Myee Hostel. It was used by the Department of Youth and Community Services as a home for secondary school aged boys who were considered to have intellectual disabilities between 1977 and some time in the 1980s.

Havilah Group Home

Havilah Group Home, at Frampton Street, Marrickville, was run by Church of England Children’s Homes from 1979 until 1984 as a family group home for up to 8 Aboriginal children between the ages of 6 and 14 years old. It was staffed by Aboriginal people and was one of the first homes of its kind….

Native Institution

The Native Institution was established at Parramatta by Governor Lachlan Macquarie on 10 December 1814 as a ‘school for the education of the native children’. It was a children’s home and asylum and was run by a Christian missionary, William Shelley. In 1823 it was moved to Blacktown. It closed in 1833. The Native Institution…

Blue Mountains Handicapped Children’s Centre

The Blue Mountains Handicapped Children’s Centre was formed in Springwood in 1961 to provide accommodation, education, employment and training for children with disabilities. At first its services were for children but this was extended to adults over time. In 2014 it is still operating, as Eloura or Blue Mountains Disability Services Ltd.