Kingsbury Farm Reformatory was a training farm for Protestant boys that opened in Newstead in April 1893. It was operated on the ‘family system’, run by a married couple, and had capacity for six boys. Boys were sent to Kingsbury from other reformatories in order to learn practical farm skills, such as land clearing, dam-making,…
Woodlands Home opened in 1886 in South Preston as a domestic training school for selected girls from the Government Reformatory for Protestant Girls at Pentridge in Coburg. Woodlands, described as a “cottage”, had capacity for eight or nine girls. The objective of Woodlands was for the “better conducted girls” of the Reformatory to spend a…
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…
The Mintaro Reformatory Home for Girls at Monegeetta, Lancefield was established in 1903 by the Methodist Home Mission Department to take the girls from the Brookside Reformatory at Cape Clear when it closed in 1903. This action took the Wesleyan church into reformatory work. It closed on 31 March 1912. The Mintaro Reformatory Home for…
The Victorian Government commissioned the John Murray Training Ship for formative training purposes for juvenile offenders from 1910 until 1918. It aimed to train seamen for the navy and merchant navy. It ceased operations in controversial circumstances in 1918. The barque Loch Ryan was purchased in 1909, converted for training purposes at Williamstown and renamed…
Mount Paradise Reformatory for Boys at Pakenham opened in 1896 to accommodate Roman Catholic boys. It experienced problems with those who attempted to abscond and by 1911 no boys were accommodated there.
The Ballarat Probationary School for Boys opened in August 1890 at Alfredton (Ballarat) to house boys who had not succeeded in boarding out placements. It was located in its own buildings within the grounds of the Ballarat Boys’ Reformatory. In the 1886 annual report from the Ballarat Reformatory, it was stated that a scheme had…
The Pakenham Girls’ Reformatory opened in 1897 on the former site of the Pakenham Boys’ Home, on Army Road, Pakenham. The first girls at the reformatory were transferred to Pakenham from the Brunswick Girls’ Home. In 1898 an article published in The Herald stated that there were 30 to 35 girls living at the reformatory….
The Bukawert Reformatory School opened in 1894 near Toora, in the county of Buln Buln, South Gippsland. It was gazetted as a ‘reformatory school for Protestant boys’ in 1894, and was located on the premises of Henry Beresford Sadleir, who was appointed as the Superintendent. It closed in 1899. The Bukawert Reformatory School was a…
The Sir Harry Smith, was a hulk (ship) anchored off Fishermans Bend, near Hobson’s Bay. From 1865, it housed mostly older boys sentenced under the Neglected and Criminal Children’s Act of 1864. The Sir Harry Smith was anchored off Fishermans Bend in the River Yarra before it flowed into Hobson’s Bay. It was one of…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
