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 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, in Marrickville, was run by Church of England Children’s Homes from 1979 until the mid 1980s as a family group home for Aboriginal children. It was staffed by Aboriginal people and was one of the first homes of its kind. It was linked to Marella Aboriginal Program but closed in the mid-1980s…
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…
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.
Cudgelo Junior Red Cross Home was opened as a Junior Red Cross Home in Ramsgate in 1923. It appears to have been a holiday home and convalescence home for girls from the Far West of New South Wales, including the Bourke district. During World War Two, the Home temporarily relocated to Yass, before returning to…
Mount Arcadia Children’s Home in Parramatta North that was established by the Smith Family in 1933. It was a convalescent home for children suffering from juvenile rheumatism and other illnesses. Most children stayed at Mount Arcadia for around 5 months before returning home. The hospital was rebuilt in the mid 1950s, and in 1958, the…
Sunnyfield School, also known as Sunnyfield Children’s Home, was a special school for children with intellectual disabilities at Manly Vale. Children stayed over the school holidays, so it also functioned as a disability institution. It was started by the Sunnyfield Branch of the Sub-Normal Children’s Welfare Association, which became the Sunnyfield Association in 1956. It…
Crowle House was a residential facility for children with intellectual disabilities that was set up by the Sub-Normal Children’s Welfare Association in Ryde in 1952. It was also known as “Once Upon a Time”. A school was attached until 1978. Many of the children at Crowle House became long term residents and stayed upon reaching…
The Singleton Aboriginal Children’s Home was run by the Aborigines Inland Mission in the same rented house as the Singleton Home, which had been a girls’ home. Singleton Aboriginal Children’s Home was for both sexes and the children were aged from birth to 14 years. It was used by the Aborigines Protection Board as an…