Salvation Army Industrial School for Girls, Collie

The Salvation Army Industrial School for Girls was established at Collie in 1901. It was an industrial school (reformatory) for ‘senior Protestant girls’ but also admitted girls under 12. When it closed in 1920, the girls were sent to the Seaforth Salvation Army Girls’ Home, Gosnells.

The Salvation Army opened an ‘industrial school’ (reformatory) for ‘senior Protestant girls’, admitting its first girls on 26 September 1901, nearly 5 kilometres from the township of Collie, Western Australia. It was one of three institutions set on 8,093 hectares of land held by the Salvation Army. The establishment of these institutions received wide publicity and glowing accounts were published in the newspapers in the early 1900s.

In 1902, there were 12 girls at the Home in June and 19 girls in December, aged from around 6 to 14 years. They were taught sewing, cookery, housework and domestic duties, according to government reports, and played ‘croquet, rounders, and various other games’ as well as ‘parlour games’ and performing musical items.

In 1903, an item from the Salvation Army’s newspaper, the War Cry reported that there were 32 girls at Collie, all of whom had been ‘saved’ (that is, they had become Salvationists).

Another War Cry item in October 1905 gave a description of the ‘happiness’ of girls who were ‘gathered from all over the State’ to live at the Home. Children included those who were referred by child welfare authorities and those who were private admissions. In 1905, this included at least one Aboriginal child and a girl who was blind.

In 1908, the three Children’s Homes at Collie were vilified in the Sunday Times newspaper, which alleged children suffered overwork, unduly harsh punishment and poor food and living conditions. In the words of the newspaper, the Homes were ‘coffinages’.

‘General instructions’ regarding punishment at the Home were included in the Salvation Army’s ‘Punishment Book’. Discipline was meant to be ‘mild and firm’ with corporal punishment a ‘last resort’, but could be ‘inflicted in the presence of a witness’ for ‘absconding, offences against morality, for gross impertinence, or for wilful and persistent disobedience’. Corporal punishment was not meant to be used for ‘trivial breaches of discipline’ and boxing children’s ears was ‘strictly forbidden’. All cases of corporal punishment were to be recorded in the Punishment Book immediately after the child was punished. The date, ‘detail of the offence, number of strokes administered, and the name of the witness’ were to be recorded. The instructions also gave guidance for ‘light punishments’ for other offences. These included: taking away a child’s privleges and confining the child to a room ‘but not in darkness’. It was also allowed to reduce the quantity or quality of food allowed to a child, who could be given ‘eight ounces of bread and water’ instead of the normal meal, ‘but no child must be deprived of two meals in succession’. The punishments were intended to comply with the Regulations of the State Children Act 1907.

A letter of appreciation of the The Daily News Orphans’ Christmas Cheer Fund in 1915 gives an insight into life at the Girls’ Home at Collie. The letter shows that donations enabled the children to occasionally have extras that were not part of their daily experience:

The money has been spent in presents, cards, and edibles for Christmas Day, and a picnic on Boxing Day. Letter, 27 December 1915 published in The Daily News 2 December 1916, p.10

In 1920, the institution closed. Some girls were sent to the Seaforth Salvation Army Girls’ Home in the Perth suburb of Gosnells, and 56 others were sent to the Salvation Army Girls’ Home, Cottesloe.