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Renwick Hospital for Infants, Summer Hill

The Renwick Hospital for Infants was opened at Summer Hill by the Benevolent Society in 1921. It replaced the previous Renwick Hospital for Infants at Thomas Street in Sydney and was a lying-in hospital and a hospital for children whose parents could not afford to pay for their medical care. Renwick Hospital at Summer Hill…

Dunlea Centre

The Dunlea Centre was opened in Engadine in 2010. It had been called Boys’ Town Engadine, but became the Dunlea Centre when it included the Margaret residential unit for young women. In 2012 the Dunlea Centre provided a range of services to adolescent children and their families including life skills education and residential out of…

St Michael’s Church of England War Memorial Children’s Home

St Michael’s Church of England War Memorial Children’s Home was officially opened at Kelso, a suburb of Bathurst, on 4 May 1957, by the Anglican Youth Council and Children’s Home Council of the Bathurst Anglican Diocesan Synod. There were three homes in the complex: one was for children of kindergarten age, one for older boys…

Protestant Orphan School

The Protestant Orphan School was established in Parramatta in 1850 by the New South Wales Colonial Government. It replaced, and brought together, what had been the Female Orphan School and the Male Orphan School. The Protestant Orphan School housed hundreds of children at a time. It was closed in 1881, after the boarding out system…

Female Orphan School

The Female Orphan School opened on 17 August 1801 in George Street, Sydney. It first housed 31 girls aged between seven and 14 years old, but by 1803 there were 103 inmates. In 1818, the girls were relocated to a new building on Arthur’s Hill (now Parramatta), and in 1819 the George Street site became…

Ohio Boys’ Home

Ohio Boys’ Home, located in Walcha, was operated by the Church of England (Anglican Church) from 1950. Run by a committee of management, it was a companion home to the Coventry Home, in Armidale, which was for girls. When Ohio Boys’ Home closed in the mid-1960s, its boys were transferred to Coventry Home. In 2012…

Halloween Children’s Home

The Halloween Children’s Home, on Redmyre Road, Strathfield, was set up around 1926 by a private committee. It appears to have been a girls’ home but may have taken boys. In the mid-1930s state wards were sent to Halloween Children’s Home. It closed around the late 1930s. The Halloween Children’s Home was located in a…

Bimbadeen Girls Home

Bimbadeen Girls Home in Cootamundra was established in 1969 by the New South Wales Department of Child Welfare in the buildings that had been used by the Cootamundra Girls Training Home. It housed Aboriginal girls, including some who had lived in Cootamundra Girls Training Home, and also some non-Aboriginal girls. Bimbadeen Girls Home closed in…

Brush Farm Infants’ Home

Brush Farm Infants’ Home was opened by the Child Welfare Department in 1968. It was at Brush Farm at Eastwood in the Dundas Valley, next to Brush Farm Home. It accommodated 40 infants of both sexes and sometimes older children as well. Brush Farm Infants’ Home closed in 1988. On 8 November 1968 Brush Farm…

Eastwood Home for Mothers and Babies

The Eastwood Home for Mothers and Babies was established in 1915 by the State Children’s Relief Board at Brush Farm House in Eastwood. Women and children who had been at the Shaftesbury Home for Mothers and Babies were moved there in 1915. Eastwood was designated for women defined as mentally deficient. Around 90 mothers and…