Archives



Burnside

Burnside, formerly Burnside Homes for Children, was a Uniting Church Agency that ran foster care, family group homes and outreach programmes from 1986 until 2000. By 2000 Burnside had become one of the largest providers of child and family services in New South Wales, although it was no longer providing residential care on its site…

Burnside Homes for Children

The Burnside Homes for Children was the new name for Burnside Presbyterian Homes for Children. The name change occurred when the Uniting Church in Australia was formed and the Uniting Church Board of Responsibility took control of the Burnside Homes. From 1978 to 1986 residential care at the Burnside site in North Parramatta was wound…

Burnside Presbyterian Homes for Children

The Burnside Presbyterian Homes for Children was formally known as Burnside Presbyterian Orphan Homes. The name change occurred in 1955. Originally a complex of cottage homes, Burnside began to provide foster care and other sorts of care in the 1960s and 1970s. It changed its name to Burnside Homes for Children when the Uniting Church…

Burnside Presbyterian Orphan Homes

Burnside Presbyterian Orphan Homes, on Pennant Hills Road at North Parramatta, were children’s homes founded in 1911 by philanthropist Sir James Burns. Burnside pioneered cottage care in Australia and was a functioning village, with 14 cottages, all grand in scale, its own farm, hospital and school, and a gymnasium and swimming pool. In 1955 Burnside…

Uniting Church Board of Social Responsibility

The Uniting Church Board of Social Responsibility is an agency of the Uniting Church in Australia. It runs welfare programmes, including children’s programmes. When the Uniting Church was created in 1977 from Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregationalist parishes the Uniting Church Board of Social Responsibility assumed responsibility for children’s homes that had been run by the…

Wesleyan Methodist Church of New South Wales

Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity linked with John Wesley and known for mission work. The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia was formed in 1946. Some members of the Methodist Church of Australasia formed a union with the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches in 1977. The Wesleyan Methodist Church, New South Wales, remained independent and…

Elsie Cook Cottage

Elsie Cook Cottage was a hostel for girls who had previously resided at Bailey Cottage that was part of the Methodist Church’s Heighway House Project. It provided hostel-style accommodation for twelve working age girls and accepted girls who had previously resided at Bailey Cottage and also from Westwood at Bowral. Elsie Cook Cottage was named…

Westwood

Westwood, at Bowral, was a residential education centre for girls over sixteen years old with mild intellectual disabilities that opened in 1965. It was run by the Methodist Department of Christian Citizenship, and commenced operation in April 1965 with an initial intake of nine girls. By 1968 Westwood held up to 90 girls and women….

Heighway House Project

Heighway House was a Methodist Church project that provided hostels for adolescent girls. The first hostel was established in 1960 in Drummoyne and provided accommodation for seven girls aged 15 to 18. It then moved to Duffy Avenue, Thornleigh and became a hostel for 12 working age girls. In 1969 Bailey Cottage, in Coogee, was…

Bailey Cottage

Bailey Cottage, in Carr Street Coogee, was bought in 1969 by the Youth Welfare Association of Australia and given to the Methodist Church’s Heighway House Project. It housed some of the Hopewood ‘children’, who were nearing adulthood, as well as state wards and children in need of intensive counselling and support with life skills. It…