CatholicCare Social Services Hunter-Manning is the welfare arm of the Catholic Church in Newcastle. Until 2011, it was known as Centacare Newcastle. It is run by the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. CatholicCare Hunter-Manning offers a variety of services including foster care; counselling (marriage, bereavement and sexual assault); employment programs; and youth accommodation and support programs. CatholicCare Hunter-Manning is an adoption agency and manages adoptions on behalf of CatholicCare Adoption Services (the Catholic adoption agency) and Anglicare Adoption Services (the Anglican adoption agency).
CatholicCare Hunter-Manning holds the known surviving records of several Catholic children’s homes and orphanages, namely the Bishop Murray Memorial Home at Campbell’s Hill which became the Monte Pio Orphanage, and the Murray Dwyer Boys’ Home, Merewether. Murray Dwyer Boys’ Home was operated by the Daughters of Charity, and at the time it was taken over by Centacare in the late 1960s had evolved into a series of small group homes. The records are incomplete. In order to facilitate access to this information, CatholicCare Hunter-Manning has developed a database which lists the name of the child in care, their date of admission and discharge, and a cross reference to the surviving original records.
There are a number of CatholicCare and Centacare offices throughout New South Wales, each of which is aligned with its local Catholic Diocese and forms part of Catholic Social Services Australia.