Merredin Residential College is a hostel for children going to the Merredin High School. It was established and run by the Anglican Church from February 1954, under the control of a local management committee. At this time, it was known as St Michael’s Hostel. From 1962, the Country High School Hostels Authority ran St Michael’s Hostel under agreement with the Anglican Church.
Neil McKenna, who was convicted in 2012 for sexually abusing a child in his care while at St Andrew’s Hostel in Katanning, was a relief supervisor at St Michael’s Hostel in Merredin towards the end of 1991. Evidence about this was given in testimony to the Special Inquiry into St Andrew’s Hostel, Katanning. The Inquiry heard that children who lived at the Merredin Hostel in 1978-79 ‘weren’t properly looked after’ and there are accounts of the physical abuse suffered by former residents at the hands of other children who lived at the hostel.
Testimony was also given about a ‘tragic’ bus accident in which six students and a hostel manager were killed on the way back from a football game in the 1980s.
It was also stated in evidence to the Inquiry that the Merredin hostel had financial difficulties during the early 1990s.
From
1954
To
Current
Alternative Names
St Michael's House
St Michael's Hostel
URL
1954 -
Merredin Residential College (previously St Michael's House) was located on Caw Street, Merridin, Western Australia (Building Still standing)