Alexandra Rescue Home

The Alexandra Rescue Home was run by the Central Methodist Mission as a home for young unmarried mothers and female rescue home. It was at Enfield (sometimes referred to as Burwood) and operated from 1902 until 1929. Initially it had 20 beds but was expanded in 1906 to provide accommodation for up to 50 girls. After it closed it was converted to Sunset Lodge, a Central Methodist Mission aged care home for women.

A Concert was held in the Central Methodist Mission’s Centenary Hall on 5 December 1905 to raise funds. The Sydney Morning Herald reported:

It has been a success from the start, providing a home for those who had no home, restoring many to virtue, and bringing to God some who had strayed from the right way.

In 1909 the Sydney Morning Herald reported that 270 girls had taken shelter at the Home since it opened, and up to 50 girls were in residence at any given time. The paper reported on the ways girls were recruited for the home:

Recently a new home known as Hope Haven has been erected in George-street North. There were two sisters in attendance, and it was part of their daily duty to attend the various police courts and offer shelter and protection to the friendless females who chanced to come before the magistrates. After a couple of days at Hope Haven the girls were sent to Burwood, and there they remained until situations could be secured for them, or until they could be restored to their parents.

Both homes were conducted on the open-door principle. The matron and staff took their meals with the girls, the first aim of the committee being to restore the girls’ self-respect. The institution was absolutely unsectarian, and all clergymen were at liberty to visit the home.