Archives



Weroona Home

Weroona was established at Woodford by the Child Welfare Department in 1946. It opened as temporary accommodation for preschool-aged children in 1946. From 1948 it housed 30 boys, aged from 7 to 15 years of age. Most of the residents could not get foster placements because of a shortage of foster homes for their age…

Thornbury Lodge

Thornbury Lodge was a children’s and infants’ home established at Baulkham Hills in 1958 or 1959, by the Child Welfare Department. It was a receiving home, and was set up to increase facilities for children in transit from foster homes to hospitals, institutions or other placements as Bidura had become too crowded. Thornbury Lodge housed…

Taldree

Taldree was opened in 1974 by the Department of Youth and Community Services in Parramatta. It was located in new buildings on part of the site of the Parramatta Girls’ Training School, which was officially closed in 1975. Taldree was a remand centre that took in up to 60 boys under 16 years for about…

St Heliers

St Heliers was established at Muswellbrook by the Child Welfare Department in 1945. It was a rural training home, organised on the cottage system, on 700 acres. Some children were transferred from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and placed in this Home. It was initially for boys aged 14 to 18 years who were thought…

Tallimba

Tallimba was established at Camden on the 26 October 1973 by the Department of Child Welfare and Social Welfare. It was a training school for young male offenders, and used a pioneering ‘therapeutic community’ model of individual, group and family therapy. It probably closed in the 1980s. Tallimba was designed as a ‘short-term intensive treatment…

Royleston

Royleston was established in Glebe by the State Children’s Relief Board in 1922. It was a receiving home, or depot, providing temporary dormitory accommodation for school-age boys who were waiting for children’s court hearings or were state wards waiting to be placed in foster care or another institution. In 1936, 904 boys passed through its…

Renwick

Renwick was established by Department of Community Services in 1976, using the buildings and land that had been occupied by the Mittagong Cottage Homes and Mittagong Training School for Boys. Renwick was a home for dependent children (state wards) of all ages and both sexes. It closed in 1994 and was sold to developers. The…

Reiby Training School

Reiby Training School was established at Airds, near Campbelltown, by the Department of Youth and Community Services in 1973. Initially, it was a home for girls defined as delinquent. In 1977, Reiby became coeducational (following the closure of the Ormond Training School). Reiby was transferred to the Department of Juvenile Justice in 1991 and became…

Phillip Cottage

Phillip College was established at Gosford by the Department of Youth and Community Services in 1977. It was a residential home for up to 24 school-age boys and girls who were wards of the state. The children attended primary and secondary schools in the area and lived in family groups. In 1988 the building was…

Mount Penang Training School for Boys

Mount Penang Training School for Boys, or Mt Penang Training Centre, was established by the Child Welfare Department in 1946 at Kariong, near Gosford. It replaced the Gosford Training School which had been on the same site. It was a reformatory for boys convicted of offences or had been difficult to manage in other Child…