Anglewood

Anglewood was established by the Child Welfare Department in 1943 at Burradoo, near Bowral, as a boarding school for boys whose ‘only reason for committal was school truancy’. Boys were detained in the home for up to two years. Some children were transferred from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and placed in this Home. Anglewood was divided into three cottage homes: Yean Cottage, Nattai and Oxley. In 1979 Anglewood became a home for state wards. It closed in 1994.

Anglewood, formerly Anglewood Grammar School, was acquired by the Child Welfare Department in 1943.

When it opened in October 1943, 15 boys to Anglewood from Turner Cottage Special School for Truants, at Mittagong. Anglewood had a one teacher school and 2 residential cottages, Nattai and Yean.

Nattai was a two-storey, modern structure, housing 30 boys, and Yean Cottage accommodated 44 boys. Yean was a three-storey, Tudor style mansion which was remodelled for the boys.

Anglewood was officially opened, on 22 August 1944. Anglewood was administered from the Mittagong Farm Home for Boys until December 1945, when a full-time principal was appointed. He took charge of the school and the residences. The staff were primarily New South Wales Education Department teachers, although the superintendent, deputy superintendent, education officers, cooks and other staff were attached to the Child Welfare Department. The schoolhouse was in a separate building within the grounds.

The boys sent to Anglewood were aged between 9 and 15 and although they ranged in ability, most were educationally disadvantaged. Staff developed individually tailored programmes for boys to improve their education. The majority of boys stayed less than 12 months, but two year terms were not uncommon. Anglewood was one of the homes children from the Australian Capital Territory who had been committed to an institution could be sent to.

Donald McLean reviewed Child Welfare Department operations in the 1950s, and likened Anglewood to ‘any boarding school’. He wrote:

The training is directed towards correcting the emotional maladjustment which caused the truancy, and overcoming the educational retardation arising from it.

However, boys were detained and were unable to leave the school, even during school holidays.

In March 1965 a third cottage, Oxley, was added to the home, providing accommodation for 30 boys. On 22 November 1974 Anglewood was proclaimed ‘a school for the reception, detention, maintenance, discipline, education and training of children and young persons committed to an institution’, under the Child Welfare Act 1939.

In February 1975 Anglewood became coeducational – the first truant school in New South Wales to detain females. In 1977 there were 77 children living at Anglewood, ranging in age from eight to 15. Fourteen of those children were girls.

At the end of 1979 Anglewood stopped being a school for truants. Its residents were transferred to Ormond at Thornleigh. Anglewood then became a home for state wards until it closed, in May 1994.