Omaru Receiving Home, run by the government, was established in the early twentieth century. It was in Launceston. The Home provided temporary accommodation for children who were wards of the state or supervised in other ways by successive child welfare departments. It closed in about 1965 and the building was used for Omaru Hostel.
Omaru Receiving Home appears to have been the first receiving home in Launceston.
It could take up to seven children.
A 1954 Mercury advertisement for a Receiving Home Keeper for Omaru described its purpose as ‘providing temporary board for children from time to time’. More specifically, it provided accommodation for new wards of the state or children on remand from the courts until the Department found a more permanent placement for them. The Home also took in children requiring temporary accommodation under the Domestic Service Assistance Act and in transit between homes. Boys at Ashley Home receiving treatment at the Launceston General Hospital stayed at this Receiving Home.
In May 1968, the children at Omaru Receiving Home moved to Casablanca Receiving Home. According to files held by the Department of Health and Human Services, Casablanca was ‘a more modern and suitable home’. Omaru became a Hostel for up to three boys.
From
1910?
To
1968
Alternative Names
Receiving Home, Launceston
1910? - 1968
Omaru Receiving Home was in Union Street, Launceston, Tasmania (Building State unknown)
Subsequent