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Sydney Foundling Institution

The Sydney Foundling Institution was founded in May 1874 as a non-church affiliated refuge for abandoned babies and single mothers, run by a committee of women. Its first location was on Victoria Street, Darlinghurst. In October 1874, the institution changed its name to the Sydney Foundling Hospital and soon after, in 1875, moved to Stewart…

Inasmuch Children’s Home

Inasmuch Children’s Home was established in 1956 at Falls Creek, near Nowra, by a retired Salvation Army Officer who had been a welfare worker. It was a Home for children who had been removed by the courts or were placed by their parents. Inasmuch was converted to an aged care facility in 1986. Inasmuch was…

Mission Australia

Mission Australia was formed in 1996 when Sydney City Mission, Adelaide City Mission, Wollongong City Mission, Perth City Mission (also known as Jesus People Inc.), Brisbane City Mission, Mission Australia Northern New South Wales, Mission Australia Southern New South Wales, Mission Australia Group Training and Mission Employment all joined forces. It provides a range of…

Youth Welfare Association of Australia

The Youth Welfare Association of Australia was a charity founded by Sydney businessman LO Bailey to fund and run his children’s homes. Bailey was its President and its Vice-President was Florence Madge Cockburn, Bailey’s chief executive in his lingerie business. The YWAA office was in Surry Hills. It was renamed the Australian Youth and Health…

Australian Youth and Health Foundation

The Australian Youth and Health Foundation is a public company, created in 1985, as the new form of the Youth Welfare Association of Australia (YWAA). In 2012 the Australian Youth and Health Foundation was based in Surry Hills, Sydney. The YWAA was originally founded by Leslie Owen Bailey, a lingerie manufacturer and natural health enthusiast…

Belhaven Home for Mothers and Babies

Belhaven Home for Mothers and Babies, in Bellevue Hill, was a babies home developed by Sydney businessman LO Bailey in 1942 and run by the Youth Welfare Association. Approximately 200 unwed or widowed mothers gave birth at Belhaven or sought assistance there. Bailey also gathered babies from nearby maternity hospitals. In all, 86 babies remained…

Hopewood

Hopewood, in Bowral, was a unique children’s home operated by the Youth Welfare Association of Australia (YWAA), which was founded by Leslie Owen Bailey. Bailey gathered 86 babies from unmarried mothers from 1942 until 1951 and raised them at Hopewood, and at smaller institutions in New South Wales, using his principles of ‘natural health’. Hopewood…

United Aborigines Mission

The United Aborigines Mission (UAM) was established in 1929. Formerly, it was known as the Australian Aborigines Mission. Its missionaries were active in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia, where the UAM established missions as well as institutions for children. All UAM children’s Homes had been shut down by the early 1980s. The…

Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home

Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home, located near Nowra, was established in 1908 by the United Aborigines Mission. It was a home for children aged under 10 and ran until 1988. As the longest-running Aboriginal Children’s Home in NSW and the first Home to be established for Aboriginal children in NSW, it has been called “the birthplace”…

Scarba House for Children

Scarba House for Children at Bondi was opened in 1965. It was previously known as Scarba Welfare House for Children. It was run by the Benevolent Society of New South Wales and was a home for babies and small children. During the 1970s it developed a range of early childhood programmes. Scarba stopped providing residential…