Government Receiving Home

• Government Industrial School (1893 - 1907)
• Government Receiving Depot (1907 - 1935)
• Government Receiving Home (1935 – 1952)
  • Child Welfare Reception Home (1953 - 1972)
  • Mt Lawley Reception Home (1973 - 1980)
  • Walcott Centre (1980 - 1984)

Run by

• Child Welfare Department, State of Western Australia (22 December 1927 - 15 June 1972)

Related Events

• Royal Commission appointed to Inquire into the Care and Reform of Youthful Delinquents, State of Western Australia (1943)
  The Government Receiving Home was inspected by members of the Royal Commission appointed to Inquire into the Care and Reform of Youthful Delinquents.
  Date: 1943 -

Related Organisations

• Princess Margaret Hospital for Children (1909 - 10 June 2018)
  Children who had to come to Perth for treatment at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children , and who had no family to stay with, were often admitted to the Government Receiving Home.

This page was written by Debra Rosser, last updated 11 April 2025. Sources used to create this entry:

• Information Services, Department for Community Development, Signposts: A Guide for Children and Young People in Care in WA from 1920, 2004 View Publication Details
• Where the Little Wards of the State are Drafted, Sunday Times, 18 August 1935 View Publication Details

• Carruthers, Geoffrey, Submission No 287 to the Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care, 23 December 2003. View Publication Details
• Department for Community Development, State of Western Australia, Submission No 55 to the Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care, July 2003. View Publication Details
• Foster, Darren J, Submission No 347 to the Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care, 3 April 2004. View Publication Details
• Foster, Darren J, She called her coral because it was 'a perfect pink day': The neglecting of Coral Suzanne Dickerson, Journal of Australian Studies, 1998. View Publication Details
• Heritage Council of Western Australia, Walcott Centre, inHerit: our heritage places, 8 February 2015. View Publication Details
• Manning, Lorna, Submission No 184 to the Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care, 19 August 2003. View Publication Details
• Millicent, Bringing them Home - Millicent story, Australian Human Rights Commission, Website, 2 December 2001. View Publication Details
• Name withheld, Submission No 319 to the Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care, 17 March 2005. View Publication Details
• Walsh, John, Submission No 41 to the Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care, 23 July 2003. View Publication Details
• Western Australia. Child Welfare Department, Annual Report of the Child Welfare Department, 1928 - 1972. Relevance: 1935 View Publication Details
• John Alexander interviewed by John Bannister in the Bringing them home oral history project [sound recording] (1999), 8 June 1999 - 15 June 1999. View Publication Details
• John Walsh interviewed by Hamish Sewell in the Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants oral history project, 28 March 2011. View Publication Details
• Joy Milligan interviewed by Mary Hutchison for the Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants oral history project, 17 April 2012 - 20 April 2012. View Publication Details

For more information and to access your records, follow the links below:

Records

• Files - Community Welfare ("A" Series), State Records Office of Western Australia (25 August 1908 - 23 December 1990)
• Files - Child Welfare, State Records Office of Western Australia (1 January 1917 - 16 June 1972)
• Admission Registers of the Government Receiving Home [Walcott Street, Mt Lawley] (1894 - 1988)