The Melbourne Youth Residential Centre is the sole facility providing custodial accommodation for remanded or sentenced young women (up to the age of 21) in Victoria’s juvenile justice system. The 30-bed centre also accommodates young men aged 10 to 14 years on remand or sentence by the Children’s Court to a Youth Residential Order. The…
Bendigo Reception Centre was established by the state government in 1965. Unlike other reception centres such as Allambie and Baltara, the Bendigo Reception Centre was managed by a family. The demand for Bendigo Reception Centre was lower than anticipated, and it was closed in February 1966.
The Public Records Act 1973 (No 8418) established the Public Record Office of Victoria (PROV), the state archival authority. The Public Records Act provides for the preservation, management and utilisation of the public records of the state. The Act provides that public records containing ‘personal or private’ material can be closed to public inspection for…
Medical experiments on children in institutions happened in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Australia. The first documented experimentation on children in institutions in Australia was in 1803, where it was reported that John Savage, Assistant Surgeon of the New South Wales Colony, was “trying the effects” of the smallpox vaccine on “some of the…
St Paul’s School for the Blind opened in 1957 in Kew and was run by the Villa Maria Society. It admitted some wards of state, and operated two residential units in Kew and Alphington. For most of its history St Paul’s School was located at 6 Studley Park Road, Kew (also described as 13 Fernhurst…
The Mission Rescue and Children’s Home, Canadian was established in 1897 and run by the Ballarat Town and City Mission (Canadian is the name of an area in Ballarat). Wickham and Golding write that the Home was “pleasantly situated on rising ground at the east end of Clayton Street, near Sinclair’s Hill and Butts Street…
On 17 September 1997, Premier Kennett issued an apology in the Legislative Assembly to the Aboriginal people for the past policies leading to the removal of Aboriginal children from their families and communities. The apology began with the words: That this house apologises to the Aboriginal people on behalf of all Victorians for the past…
The Aborigines Act 1910 (No. 2255 of 1910) had the long title, ‘An act to extend the powers of the Board for the Protection of Aborigines’. This Act abandoned the distinction in law between ‘full-blood’ and ‘half-caste’ in terms of defining Aboriginality. (The different treatment of ‘Aboriginal’ and ‘half-caste’ persons was established in law by…
The McLean Inquiry was established in December 1955, to ascertain the population of Aboriginal Victorians; report on their self-maintenance prospects; comment on factors affecting Aboriginal ‘absorption’ into mainstream society, and on the viability of maintaining a separate Aboriginal administration. The Inquiry was also to advise on the future of the Lake Tyers mission in East…
The Adoption of Children Act 1964 (No. 7147) was “An Act relating to the Adoption of Children and for Purposes connected therewith.” The Adoption of Children Act 1964 was passed on 5 May 1964, commenced on 1 January 1966, and was repealed by the Adoption Act 1984 on 16 November 1987. The 1964 Act was…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
