Ellimatta

Ellimatta Home was established by the United Protestant Association of New South Wales at East Maitland in 1945. A girls’ home, it was located next to Ellimeek, an adjoining house which was purchased at the same time. Ellimeek was initially used as flats and was later also turned into a girls home. Ellimatta closed in 1982.

Ellimatta was officially opened on 24 November 1945 after the United Protestant Association [UPA] purchased two adjoining properties on Victoria Street in East Maitland. When it was closed in 1982 the properties were leased to the Metford Baptist Church and then sold in 1985. The UPA set up aged persons’ care on a remnant portion of land.

In 2013, Joanne McCarthy published an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, stating that former residents of Woodlands had given distressing testimony to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and stated that an organised ring of paedophiles, including members of the Anglican and Catholic clergy, had sexually abused boys during a Christian programme held on Sundays at Woodlands in the 1970s. Additionally, a girl from Ellimatta was allegedly abused by a gardener.

In the article, the UPA issued an unreserved apology to children abused while they were living in the Woodlands and Ellimatta Homes, and acknowledged it had paid compensation to victims.

The UPA Board has since issued a further and full apology stating:

We sought to be trusted by children, parents, and the State, but we freely acknowledge that in many of our homes we failed to provide the safe and nurturing environment that children need to thrive. Emotional, physical and sexual abuse did occur in those homes. We are ashamed of those failures and offer our sincere and deep apology for the harm caused.