The Ballarat Female Refuge was established in 1867 by a group of protestant women, with the objective of reforming ‘prostitutes’. It became a shelter for single mothers. It was the first such institution on Australia’s goldfields. In 1921, the Refuge became part of the Ballarat Town and City Mission Rescue and Children’s Home. Initially, the…
The Ballarat Town and City Mission was founded in 1867. The Ballarat Town and City Mission ran a number of Homes for children and babies, including, from around 1921 until 1974, the Alexandra Babies’ Home. Some records of the Mission and its charitable institutions are held by the Central Highlands Regional Library Corporation. In 1921,…
Harrison House in Hawthorn was established in 1960. Run by the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, it provided hostel-style residential accommodation for wards of state, boys on probation from the courts or institutions, and boys coming to Melbourne to find work from Kilmany Park in Gippsland. In its early years, it was known as Arthur Harrison…
Many congregations of the Presbyterian Church of Australia united with congregations from the Methodist and Congregational Churches to form the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977. However, the Presbyterian Church continued to exist as a separate entity to the Uniting Church from 1977.
The first Methodist Minister to arrive in Australia was Reverend Samuel Leigh who came to New South Wales in 1815. The first Methodist churches were established in Victoria in the early 1850s. The Methodist Church was involved in a number of child welfare institutions in Victoria from the beginning of the twentieth century. The Methodist…
The Anglican Diocese of Melbourne came into being in 1847. Until 1981 the Anglican Church was known as the Church of England. Many institutions for children in Victoria had close links with the Church of England, including the Melbourne Orphan Asylum which had its roots in the St James Visiting Society, formed in 1845. From…
The Canterbury Family Centre came into being in 1977. In May 2000, the new organisation Connections UnitingCare was created with the amalgamation of the Canterbury Family Centre, Copelen and the Wheelers Hill Family Centre. [Taken from the ReConnections and Re-collections document http://www.connections.org.au/pdfs/ReConnections-and-ReCollections.pdf] The Family Centre stood on the old site of the Presbyterian Babies’ Home,…
The Copelen Street Family Centre was established in 1974 in South Yarra. It included a children’s care centre, offered family counselling, and provided foster care. By the late 1980s the South Yarra property was sold and in 1991, the Centre was renamed Copelen Child and Family Services. The Copelen Street Family Centre grew out of…
The Wheelers Hill Family Centre commenced in the 1970s as a church-based program. Over the years the Centre expanded, until in 2000, it amalgamated with Copelen and the Canterbury Family Centre, to create the new organisation Connections UnitingCare.
The Grassmere Community Youth Guidance Centre was established in 1973, in the south eastern suburb of Doveton. The service provided locally based programs and sought to engage with young people before they came into ‘care’ or the juvenile justice system. Grassmere gained a reputation as a valuable alternative to institutional ‘care’ and benefited from strong…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
