Please contact the State Records Research Centre:
Postal Address: GPO Box 464, Adelaide SA 5001
Phone: 08 7322 7077
Quote this number to access your records: State Records of South Australia Series ID, GRS/13484
These records are held by State Records of South Australia (1919 - current).
The volumes in this series provide an index to the Registers of Admissions to the Magill Boys Reformatory (1877 – 1880 and 1891 – 1967) and the McNally Training Centre (1967 – 1975).
A Research Centre Members card, obtainable at the Archives, is required to research records held at State Records.
Although some very early records relating to children in care in South Australia are open for access, most records relating to children are subject to a 100 year restriction, particularly those which contain personal information about individuals. Written permission must be obtained from the government agency which created the record in order to access restricted material. To obtain permission a Freedom of Information (FOI) request form must be submitted to the relevant government department. State Records staff will be able to assist you with this.
The volumes are index-tabbed alphabetically. Loose pages were adhesive taped into the first volume where the space for names for a particular letter was exhausted. The information in the volumes is limited to the surname of the child, followed by their initials (in the volume dated 1877 – 1967) or first names (in the volume dated 1968 – 1975). An admission number for each boy is written next to his name. In the first volume the number 33 – 77, for example, meant that the child was the 33rd inmate taken in the year 1877. In the second volume the number 33 – 68 referred to the 33rd inmate taken in the year 1968.