Church of England Boys' Home

The Church of England Boys’ Home was for boys aged 6 to 18 years. It was established by Church of England Homes in 1918 in a rented house in Cronulla, before moving in 1920 to Carlingford occupying the building ‘Minden’. Boys were sometimes transferred from the Church of England home, Havilah, upon reaching the age of 9.

Minden was extended the following year to enable the Home to accommodate 60 children when the addition of No. 2 Home opened on 7^th May 1921. The following year, The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate reported that the Home had received another grant to extend the No 2 Home, creating space for a further 30 boys. They also noted that older boys had assisted with the building work to make improvements to the buildings and grounds, and that they attended the local state school, and received religious education from the rector of the parish.

On 10 December 1925, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that 81 boys lived at the homes in Carlingford. As part of a Christmas appeal for gifts noted that children were “either orphans, destitute, or needy children…[and] numbers of them are children of men who made the great sacrifice in the Great War”.

In 1927 the Boys’ Home moved to a new site further north on Pennant Hills Road, Carlingford, opening Buckland Memorial Home on 17^th December 1927. In 1927 the Boys Hostel was also opened on the site, becoming known as the James Stuart Memorial Hostel in 1930.

As reported in The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, the Home was known for their annual December prize giving ceremony which focused not on scholarly achievements but on other qualities such as “always being ready to help”. The Home relied on fundraising activities to support it including motor drives and fetes. Boys played sports including cricket and soccer and were placed in local leagues.

The Boys’ Home continued to expand and in May 1928 two cottages were opened known as Vickery Cottage and the Frank Johnstone Home, though this was renamed Broad Cottage not long after. In 1934 Spurway Home was also opened, and in 1941 Trigg Annex was opened as part of the hostel. In 1942, Terrigal Holiday House was donated to the Boys’ Home and was located at 14 Ocean View Drive, Wamberal. In 1947 Trigg Home was opened.

The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate reported in February 1942:

At present there are 140 boys at the Homes. In addition to the usual school course, they receive vocational training. The names of 62 former pupils who have enlisted in the A.I.F. and the R.A.A.F. are inscribed on the Honor Roll.

Gwen Pearce shared recollections from her time in the Church of England Girls’ Home and how she interacted with her brother who was in the boys Home as part of a submission to the Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care:

My first home was a Church of England Home in Carlingford, we used to go out to school there. My brother Ken was in the boys home and we would see each other on the way to school. We would try to talk to each other but would be stopped and get into trouble for talking to the opposite gender even though we were brother and sister as this was not allowed…Ken remained in this home till he left to go to work on a farm.

Another former resident shared his experiences in a submission to the Inquiry about being physically and sexually assaulted while in the Home during the 1960s.

In 1965, the hostel part of the Home became known as the Killara Group Home becoming the first family group home on the site for house parents and 10 children. It was again renamed to the Trigg Working Boys Hostel in 1969, and then closed in 1977 on this site when it was temporarily moved to the Molly-Trigg Cottage on the site of the Church of England Girls’ Home.

The Church of England Boys’ Home closed in May 1976 when children were placed in group homes at other locations, with the Buckland Memorial Home, Vickery Cottage, Broad Cottage, Spurway Home, and Trigg Home all closing at this time.

John Ingersole who grew up in the boys’ home has written about the history of the complex.

According to research done by the staff of the Northern Territory Department of Health, children from the Northern Territory were sent to the Church of England Boys’ Home. The Home was also mentioned in the Bringing Them Home Report (1997) as an institution that housed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children removed from their families.

The Church of England Boys’ Home was mentioned in the Lost Innocents Report (2001) as an institution involved in the migration of children to Australia.