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Aurukun Mission

The Aurukun Mission was an Indigenous community situated south of Weipa in far north Queensland. Run by the Presbyterian Church, it opened in 1904. Children on the Mission were housed in dormitories from around the age of 11. The dormitory system of care was abolished in 1968. The Aurukun Mission was established on 4 August…

Yarrabah Mission

Yarrabah Mission was founded by the Anglican Church. It was run by the Anglican Diocese of North Queensland, and received funding and staffing assistance from the Australian Board of Mission. Canon Ernest Richard Bulmer Gribble was in charge at Yarrabah from 1893 until 1910. In 1900, the Yarrabah Mission was declared an industrial school, and…

Native Workers’ Training College

The Native Workers’ Training College was established as a Protestant ministry training school for Aboriginal people by the Aborigines Inland Mission (AIM) at Pindimar, near Port Stephens, in 1938. The College was evacuated during World War II and operated in rented premises in Dalwood. In 1946 it moved to Minimbah House, Whittingham. It took Aboriginal…

Aborigines Inland Mission

The Aborigines Inland Mission (AIM) was an Evangelical Baptist missionary organisation established by Retta Dixon in 1905. The AIM and its staff ran the St Clair Mission, the Singleton Home, the Native Workers’ Training College and the Singleton Bible Training Institute in New South Wales, as well as the Phillip Creek Mission and the Retta…

St Clair Aboriginal Mission

St Clair Mission, located on the southern bank of Lake St Clair, between Muswellbrook and Singleton, was an Aboriginal mission that was established by Reverend JS White in 1893. In the late 1890s Retta Dixon, a Baptist missionary, moved to the Mission. In 1905 she formed the Aborigines Inland Mission and took formal control of…

Marella Mission Farm

Marella Mission Farm originated in 1948 with Gwen and Keith Langford-Smith accommodating Aboriginal foster children on their farm property at Kellyville. By 1949 Langford Smith had set up the Sky Pilot Foundation to run the farm, with the stated goal of caring for Aboriginal children who had been born in New South Wales to mothers…

Crusaders Camp Mission Hostel

Crusaders Camp Mission Hostel at Otford, near Sydney’s Royal National Park, was used by the Church Missionary Society in 1942 to house 98 Aboriginal children who had been evacuated from Croker Island, north of Darwin in the Northern Territory. The evacuees, who were accompanied by the Croker Island Mission staff, were wards of the Commonwealth…

Church Missionary Society of Australia

The Church Missionary Society (CMS) is an Anglican missionary society founded in London in 1799. An auxiliary for the Church Missionary Society was first established in Sydney in 1825, followed by the formation of other CMS associations around Australia. In 1916, the Australian CMS associations came together as the Church Missionary Association of Australia and…

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…

Warangesda Dormitory

Warangesda Dormitory was established on an Aborigines Protection Association station at Warangesda, near Darlington Point, in 1893. It trained Aboriginal girls for domestic service and served as a welfare depot for younger children from other reserves and stations. In 1897 the Aborigines Protection Board took over managing Warangesda Mission and the Dormitory. Girls from Warangesda…