The George Street Children’s Home was established in 1916 and run by the Ballarat Town and City Mission. The Town and City Mission Visitor of 4 August 1916 appealed for more furniture to be donated to help the children at George Street settle in, and “make the place something like it ought to be”. In September 1916…
The Ballarat Benevolent Asylum opened in 1859, in a building in Ascot Street. Until institutions specifically for children were established in Ballarat, many children were housed there. The Ballarat Benevolent Asylum closed its doors to children in 1869. Surviving records of the Benevolent Asylum include admission registers (1859-1900) and annual general reports (1859-1970). These records…
The Community of the Holy Name is a religious order founded in Melbourne, in 1888. The founder of the order, Emma Caroline Silcock (also known as Sister Esther), led the work of the Mission to the Streets and Lanes in Melbourne, and the two organisations had a close association. The order was not formally established…
The Aborigines Welfare Board was established by the Aborigines Act 1957. This Act abolished the Board of Protection (first formed in Victoria in 1860). The new Aborigines Welfare Board had the function ‘to promote the moral, intellectual and physical welfare of aborigines (full blood and half-caste) with a view to their assimilation in the general…
The Central Board Appointed to Watch Over the Interests of Aborigines came into being in 1860, as a result of an inquiry into Aboriginal welfare in Victoria in 1858. The Board was given statutory authority in 1869, with the passing of the Aborigines Protection Act 1869. At this time, the organisation became known as the…
Peninsula Family Services was established in 1980 by the Mission of St James and St John. The Andrew Kerr Memorial Home had been closed in 1978, with its residents being moved to family group homes in the Mornington Peninsula region. Peninsula Family Services was first located above a coffee shop in Main Street, Mornington. In…
Tracy Dutton House was a family group home in Mitcham run by the Carry On Club Victoria from 1964. The home focused on short term care of the children of ex-servicemen and women, aged between 4 and 13. Carry On closed the Home in1970. Tracy Dutton House was located at 10 Harrison Street, Mitcham. It…
The Seaside Garden Home for Boys was established in around 1921 in Newhaven, on Phillip Island and run by non-denominational committee of management. When the Seaside Garden Home opened in around 1921, it was an approved ‘institution to whose care neglected children may be committed’, under the terms of the Children’s Welfare Act 1915. In…
Hurlingham was established by The Carry On Club Victoria in Brighton in 1946. It accommodated ‘under-privileged boys aged 10-16 who were the sons of ex-servicemen and women’, including some wards of state. Hurlingham was closed in 1963. In 1955, the Carry On Club of Victoria applied for Hurlingham to be declared an ‘approved children’s home’…
The Try Society came into being in the early 1880s, when William Mark Foster and William Groom formed a number of ‘Try Excelsior’ groups in different suburbs around Melbourne. The clubs established by the Try Boys’ Societies aimed to lead boys away from the path that led to ‘larrikinism’. The Try Society emerged as a…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
