The Ngal-a Mothercraft Home and Training Centre Inc (Ngala) was the new name given in 1956 to The Alexandra Home for Mothers and Babies (Inc) and Mothercraft Training School, in Highgate. In 1959 Ngala moved to Kensington. Ngala had three functions: a maternity home for mothers and babies; from 1959, the ‘reception centre’ for all…
Neuville was a service providing short or long term residential care for girls. According to Signposts (2004), it is likely that Neuville started out as a successor to the Home of the Good Shepherd. Government reports (Signposts 2004, pp.369-371) give no information about why Neuville was established, but it is known that by 1975, Neuville…
Nazareth House in Bluff Point, Geraldton was established in 1941 and run by the Poor Sisters of Nazareth. Its first residents were children from 1 year old who were private admissions, and ‘destitute’ aged people. Nazareth House also housed child migrants sent from Britain and Malta (1947-1966), who often lived there for many years. At…
Nabberu Hostel at Leonora was a government-run residential facility for primary-school aged children. It is unclear when the hostel opened, however it was declared an approved institution for the purposes of receiving child endowment payments in 1967, at which time there were 24 children in residence. By 1971 the hostel housed 66 boys and girls…
Myera House, in Subiaco, was established around 1973 as a government-run Aboriginal education and employment hostel for young people going to high school in Perth. Myera closed briefly in the mid-1980s but had re-opened by 1987. By 1994, only seven boys (aged 15 to over 18 years) had been admitted. Myera closed permanently around 2005….
Mowanjum was established near Derby in 1956 when the Presbyterian church moved residents of Wotjulum mission to a new site in Yampi Sound near Derby. Until 1963, children at Mowanjum were under the guardianship of the Commissioner of Native Welfare. In 1971 it housed 65 school-age children. Mowanjum became a self-governing community in 1972, and…
Mount Margaret Mission, south of Laverton, was established in 1921 by R. Schenk, with assistance from the Australian Aborigines Mission. Around 1928, the Schenks established a dormitory system at the Mission, where Aboriginal children were housed separately from their parents. It was called the Graham Homes. By 1942 several hundred Aboriginal families, including children, lived…
Moorgunyah Hostel, in Port Hedland, was established in 1967 as a government-run Aboriginal education and employment hostel for young people going to high school in Port Hedland. The number of students able to be accommodated at Moorgunyah changed from 52 (1971) to 30 (1995). It closed, possibly around 1996. Government reports (Signposts 2004, pp.357-359) show…
Mogumber was run by the Methodist Overseas Mission from 1951 on the site of the Moore River Native Settlement. Aboriginal children and young people of all ages were placed there by parents, child welfare authorities or the Children’s Court. In the 1970s, some children were moved from Mogumber to houses in Perth. In 1974, Mogumber…
The Methodist Children’s Home opened in 1922 on a property in Sussex Street, East Victoria Park. It was the first child care institution that was run by the Methodist Homes for Children, which was part of the Methodist Church in Western Australia. Children of all ages who were placed by family or who were wards…