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Happy Days

Happy Days was a Home in Black Rock, run by Melbourne City Mission. It was a Home where groups of children ‘in delicate health’ were sent for a seaside holiday. Happy Days opened on 4 March 1933. Usually, alternating groups of 10 boys or 10 girls went to Happy Days for around a 12 day…

Wandin Yallock Reformatory School

Wandin Yallock Reformatory School, or ‘Fernydale’, was opened in 1886 as a private reformatory for boys. Fernydale was established to reform ‘juvenile offenders’ by providing them with farm training. In 1893 Fernydale was proclaimed a reformatory under the Juvenile Offenders Act 1887 and received boys from the government reformatory which closed in April of that…

Training Home for Girls

The Training Home for Girls was established in around 1880, as an institution where young women received training to become domestic servants. Originally, it was known as the Servants’ Training Institute. The Training Home for Girls was located in Berry Street, East Melbourne (Jolimont). It was run by a committee of management with links to…

Dame Mary Herring Spastic Children’s Hostel

Dame Mary Herring Spastic Children’s Hostel in Armadale was a centre that provided residential care to children with cerebral palsy. Run by the Spastic Children’s Society of Victoria, it opened in 1956 and was approved as a children’s home in 1964. Residential accommodation was provided in congregate care form at the Hostel itself, as well…

Foster Care Westernport

Foster Care Westernport was established in 1979. As well as providing foster care, it provided respite care for children with disabilities through the Westernport Interchange program. The agency had a separate foster care program for adolescents. In 1991, Foster Care Westernport merged with the Victorian Children’s Aid Society to form the new organisation, Family Focus….

Lutheran Children’s Homes

Lutheran Children’s Homes was established in around 1973, following the closure of the Lutheran Children’s Home in Kew. Around this time, the Lutheran Church moved into family group home care, establishing cottage homes in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. During the early 1980s, Lutheran Children’s Homes established a foster care service in south western Victoria, Glenelg Foster…

Lisa Lodge

Lisa Lodge was the new name given to the Home formerly known as Hayeslee House, sometime around 1994. It was run by the Lisa Lodge – Hayeslee Committee who managed a number of institutions in the Ballarat region. In July 2012 Lisa Lodge merged with Berry Street, to strengthen Berry Street’s services provided in the…

The South Yarra Home

The South Yarra Home was an institution for ‘friendless and fallen’ women and girls was established around 1878 by Matthew Burnett, an evangelist who conducted a mission in Wesley Church. It was located at 17-19 Lang Street, South Yarra. In 1895, Wesley Central Mission took over responsibility from a local committee for running the South…

Harrison Community Services

Harrison Community Services came into being in 1994. Previously it was known as Harrison House Youth Services. The name change reflected a broadening of services, to include families as well as young people. Run by the Uniting Church, it was based in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. In 2000, it became part of UnitingCare Victoria….

Mission House

Mission House was the headquarters of the Mission to the Streets and Lanes. From the 1950s until the 1970s, some single mothers were accommodated at Mission House during their pregnancies. In 1952, the Mission relocated from Mission House in Spring Street, Melbourne, to new premises at 116 Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy. In the early 1970s, Mission…