Archives



Ballarat Industrial School

The Ballarat Industrial School was a state-run institution, which opened in August 1869. The institution housed 215 girls in 1872. In 1879, the Industrial School closed, and became a reformatory for boys. The Ballarat Industrial School was the only institution in Victoria mentioned in the 1872 report by the Royal Commission on Penal and Prison…

The Nelson

The Nelson was a hulk [ship] anchored off Williamstown, Hobson Bay. From 1868, it housed boys aged ten who had been sentenced under the Neglected and Criminal Children’s Act of 1864. By 1872, the vessel housed 383 boys. It was abandoned in 1876 when the boys were transferred to the Bendigo Benevolent Asylum Industrial School,…

Brookside Private Reformatory for Protestant Girls

The Brookside Private Reformatory for Protestant Girls was established in 1887 by Mrs Elizabeth Rowe. One of the first privately-run reformatories in Victoria, Brookside was located in the town of Cape Clear, near Scarsdale. It closed in 1903. The Brookside Private Reformatory for Protestant Girls was established on 29 December 1887. In a visit to…

Sunbury Industrial School

The Sunbury Industrial School was established in 1865. It was located on Jacksons Hill, in Sunbury. On its closure, in around 1880, boys from Sunbury were transferred to the Royal Park Industrial School in Parkville. The Sunbury Industrial School was the first purpose-built institution created by the government in 1865 in response to the Neglected…

Government Reformatory for Girls, Coburg

The Government Reformatory for Girls in Coburg was established in 1875. The first reformatory for girls in the colony of Victoria was at Sunbury, established in 1865. The new premises in Coburg were “in immediate contiguity” to Pentridge Prison, in what was later known as G Division. The girls’ reformatory operated there from 1875 until…

Jika Reformatory for Boys

In 1873 the Boys’ Reformatory run by the Victorian government moved from the reformatories on board the Sir Harry Smith and the Deborah. The new institution at Coburg was known as the Jika Reformatory for Boys. It was located within the grounds of Pentridge prison. The Royal Commission on Penal and Prison Discipline had stated in…

The Horseshoe

The Horseshoe was a Home in Carlton for women suffering from venereal disease, run by the Mission of St James and St John. In October 1927, women were transferred from The Horseshoe to the Mission’s new institution at Fairfield, known as Fairhaven. On 31 December 1925, a hotel known as The Horseshoe in Lygon Street…

Ramoth

Ramoth was established in Ferntree Gully in 1926. It was a convalescent Home for young women suffering from venereal diseases. In 1927, the Mission of St James and St John took over Ramoth and it became the Ramoth Toddlers’ Home. Women at Ramoth were transferred to Fairhaven in Fairfield. Ramoth was run in close association…

Home Mission Society of Victoria

The Home Mission Society of Victoria was established in circa 1871 by the Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Church to undertake mission work in city and country. Under the auspices of the Home Mission Society, the Central Dorcas Society, later called the Wesleyan Church Neglected Children’s Aid Society, ran Livingstone House in Carlton. In 1884,…

Central Dorcas Society

The Central Dorcas Society was a Wesleyan organisation established at a meeting of over 100 women in 1888. The aims of the Society were ‘to help the poor and look after waifs’. After a name change to the Central Dorcas Association Help and Rescue Society, in 1891 the Society became known as the Wesleyan Church…