The Boarding Out Society took on the voluntary role of visiting and inspecting boarded out children in South Australia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It was officially formed in 1872 by Emily Clark and Catherine Helen Spence who had campaigned for boarding out since the 1860s. They believed that ‘unfortunate’ children would be better cared for if they were placed out in country areas with ‘ordinary families’ rather than in institutions such as the Industrial School or Reformatory, or in city homes. The Society was absorbed by the State Children’s Council when it was established in 1886.