Glenorchy Infant Orphanage

The Glenorchy Infant Orphanage opened in 1898. Originally a Mrs Fagg ran it but in 1902, she handed it over to a Miss Maum. The Orphanage had accommodation for 10 children and appears to have been for a young age range, about 1 to 10 years. It closed in about 1912.

The Glenorchy Infant Orphanage was in Tolosa Street, then known as Dusty Miller Lane, on the corner of Clydesdale Street, Glenorchy. The Orphanage was Protestant.

Mrs Fagg and Miss Maum did not like to ask for financial assistance from the government or the general public, trusting instead that funds would come to them. At the 1899 Annual General Meeting, Mrs Fagg told the audience that she had ‘solicited aid from God alone’:

At one time while asking for funds, she had received a letter from a clergyman in the Isle of Wight, who had some money placed in his hands by an officer in India, and this money was sent to Tasmania in time to meet a present need: thus proving that God can move hearts on the other side of the globe in time to send aid to His children on this.

In 1899, the children had a holiday in a cottage at Brown’s River, now Kingston, lent to the Orphanage by some well wishers. Two years later, the children supplemented the Orphanage’s income by fruit picking for their holiday.

The first Matron was a Mrs Mezger.

In June 1899, the Orphanage had eight children aged between 16 months to nine years.