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Asylum for Destitute Children

The Society for the Relief of Destitute Children opened an asylum for children in Ormond House, a mansion in Paddington, in 1852. The Asylum held 150 children aged 3 to 10 years who were defined as needy yet had not been admitted to the Orphan Schools. Every child admitted (including voluntary admissions) to the Asylum…

Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children

The Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children began in 1858, when the Asylum for Destitute Children relocated from Ormond House in Paddington to Randwick. It was run by the Society for the Relief of Destitute Children and housed up to 800 children at a time in large dormitories that are often called ‘barracks’. Most of the…

Mittagong Training School For Boys

Mittagong Training School For Boys, run by the Child Welfare Department, was the new name given in 1947 to what had been the Mittagong Farm School for Boys. It was an institution for boys aged 8 to 17 convicted in the Children’s Courts. Some children were transferred from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and placed…

Toongabbie

Toongabbie was established by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in 1948 in Toongabbie in western Sydney. It appears that it was established as a holiday home and farm school, with the farm supporting the Home of the Good Shepherd, Ashfield. In 1953, the The Loreto Training School was established at Toongabbie, as an adjunct…

St Gabriel’s School

St Gabriel’s was established in Castle Hill in 1922 by the Christian Brothers. It was a residential home for boys who had a hearing impairment, aged from 5 to 17 years. St Gabriel’s stopped serving as a residential school in 1973, and became a co-educational day school. In 2014 it was still a school, but…

St Martha’s Industrial Home

St Martha’s Industrial Home opened at Leichhardt by the Sisters of Saint Joseph in 1888. St Martha’s housed girls of school age and trained them in domestic arts and crafts. In 1923 the original building was demolished and replaced with dormitories, housing up to 120 children. In the late 1950s, St Martha’s Industrial Home became…

St Edmund’s School

St Edmund’s School opened in 1951 in Wahroonga and was run by the Christian Brothers. It was a residential school for boys who had a visual impairment, aged from 5 to 17 years. After 1980 the school began to include students who had other sensory impairments and other special needs.

Christian Brothers

The Congregation of Christian Brothers is a world wide religious community within the Catholic Church that was founded by the Irish missionary and teacher Edmund Rice (1762-1844) in 1802. Their main focus is social justice and the evangelisation and education of youth and they have run hundreds of schools and institutions across the world. The…

Roman Catholic Orphan School

The Roman Catholic Orphan School at Parramatta was established on the 8 March 1844 and run by a committee. On the 31 March 1859, it was taken over by the Good Shepherd Sisters, later known as Sisters of the Good Samaritan. It was Australia’s first purpose built orphanage for Catholic children and was funded by…

Rosemount

Rosemount was established in Dulwich Hill in 1976 by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. It was a community based residential programme for teenage girls, aged between 13 to 16 years. The girls attended local schools or were employed in the community. Rosemount closed in 1981.