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Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney

The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney is part of the worldwide Catholic Church. Catholicism arrived in Australia with the convicts and soldiers of the First Fleet in 1788, although the first Catholic ceremony was conducted by French explorer La Perouse. The first Catholic Mass on Australian soil was conducted until 1803 and the foundation stone for…

Mornington Island Mission

The Mornington Island Mission was established by the Presbyterian Church in 1914. The island is located in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Children on the Mornington Island Mission lived in dormitories, nearly totally isolated from their families. The children’s dormitories closed around the late 1960s. Mornington Island was self-managed from 1978, when the Mornington Island Shire…

Baptist Mission Australia

Baptist Mission Australia is the new name of Global Interaction, formerly the Australian Baptist Mission Society. Baptist Mission Australia holds records of Baptist missionary activity in Australia.

Victorian Neglected Children’s Aid Society Receiving Home

The Victorian Neglected Children’s Aid Society Receiving Home in La Trobe Street, Melbourne, was a Home for the temporary care of children. It was closely associated with child rescuer Selina Sutherland who established the Victorian Neglected Children’s Aid Society in 1894. From the early 1880s Sutherland had been taking in children as part of her…

Swinburne House

Swinburne House was opened by the Victorian Children’s Aid Society around 1968 in Black Rock. The Victorian Children’s Aid Society Home had previously been located in Parkville, at a property they sold in 1966. In 1968, Swinburne House accommodated 34 children, aged between 3 and 18 years and was also the headquarters of the Society….

Northcote Trust

The Northcote Trust was established in 1936 following a bequest in the will of Lady Alice Northcote, wife of Lord Henry Northcote, third Governor-General of Australia, to assist “poor children of British birth of either sex, and particularly orphans, to migrate from any part of Great Britain…” (Melbourne Leader, 30 March 1935). The bequest was…

City of Melville Libraries and Museums

City of Melville Libraries and Museums holds the historical and library collections for the City of Melville council, which encompasses the suburbs of Bicton, Applecross, Ardross, Melville, Kardinya, Booragoon, and Murdoch. It holds a collection of over 300 items and records from Heathcote Reception Home.

Roman Catholic Orphan School

The Roman Catholic Orphan School was established at Waverley House, a large home in Waverley, in 1837. It was the first Catholic orphanage in Australia. It was opened in response to community concerns about Catholic children being placed in the government-run Protestant orphan schools, where they were raised as Protestants, not Catholics. The home was…

St Patrick’s Orphan School

St Patrick’s Orphan School was established at Windsor in September 1840. It was run by a private management committee in association with St Matthew’s Catholic Church, Windsor. At its official opening in October 1840 there were seven children in residence, with 20 children in the school by June 1841. The closing date of St Patrick’s…

Department for Education, Children and Young People, Tasmanian Government

The Department for Education, Children and Young People was established on 1 October 2022. The Department is responsible for the facilitation of out of home care, child welfare, and custodial youth justice services in Tasmania. It also runs the Adoptions and Permanency Services, which provides suppport and records access services for Care Leavers.