The Melbourne City Mission Toddlers’ Home was situated on the same site as the Melbourne Mission’s Maternity Home, which had accommodated babies with their mothers since 1900. The Home accommodated children up to the age of five. In 1955, the Mission amalgamated the Toddlers’ Home and the Maternity Home. The new Home was renamed Hartnett…
The Gordon Institute, Melbourne, was established in 1886. It offered boys classes and a place to socialise. The Institute aimed to find boys work placements in the country, but did accommodate some boys aged 5 to 14. In 1951, new facilities were opened in Highett, and the institution became known as the Gordon Home for…
The Kardinia Children’s Home in Belmont (Geelong) was established in 1947 and was run by the Salvation Army. Originally it opened as a toddler’s home and accommodated children aged between two and five with children sent to Salvation Army children’s homes in Melbourne upon reaching school age. Later on it provided for children of all…
The Murrumbeena Girls’ Home was established by the Salvation Army in 1897. It accommodated around 40 girls and young women. The Home closed in 1912, with the remaining girls being sent to the newly opened William Booth Girls’ Home in Camberwell. Murumbeena Girls’ Home was located on the corner of Dandenong Road and Belgrave Road,…
The Heidelberg Boys’ Home was established by the Salvation Army in 1893. It closed in 1895. The Heidelberg Boys’ Home was established by the Salvation Army in 1893. It was situated on a small property in Heidelberg. It was proclaimed a reformatory under the Juvenile Offenders Act 1887 and was for Protestant boys. In January 1893 the…
The Jacana Children’s Home was established by the Salvation Army in 1976. By the early 1980s the Jacana complex accommodated a total of 24 children within three residential ‘care’ units. The Home closed in 1995. The Jacana Children’s Home was situated in Sunset Boulevard, Jacana. The Salvation Army had purchased the land in the City…
The Convent of the Good Shepherd, Oakleigh, was established in 1883. It was also known as the Private Reformatory for Roman Catholic Girls. The Convent first received girls and women from about 14 years, but in later years it accommodated girls from the age of 11. The Convent of the Good Shepherd was demolished in…
Tally Ho opened in 1903 in Burwood. This institution, run by the Wesley Central Mission, was for boys ‘rescued’ from the city slums to be trained in farm work. From 1977, Tally Ho received girls as well as boys. It closed in 1986. Tally Ho Training Farm opened in 1903 under the auspices of the…
The Royal Park Depot in Parkville was the sole reception centre for children committed to State care in Victoria from about 1880 to 1961. The Depot was a ‘clearing house’ for boys and girls, before they were boarded out, sent out to service or committed to a reformatory school. In 1955 it became Turana. The…
St Martin’s Home for Boys was established in 1921 as a Church of England Boys’ Home in Auburn. It was run by a provisional committee established by the Church of England Archdiocese of Melbourne in 1919. In 1926, St Martin’s Home moved to Canterbury, onto the same site as St John’s Homes for Boys. The…