Scarba Welfare House for Women and Children

The Scarba Welfare House for Women and Children at Bondi was opened in 1917 by the Benevolent Society of New South Wales as a home for women and babies. In 1920, the Board of the Benevolent Society decided to devote Scarba entirely to the care of young children and the name was changed to Scarba Welfare House for Children.

In 2006 the Benevolent Society published a history of Scarba, as part of its response to the Senate Inquiry into the Forgotten Australians. Living at Scarba Home for Children intended to set out the good and the bad, and acknowledge mistakes made in the care of children. It acknowledges that it is difficult to find out what Scarba was like in the period before 1965, and few individual records of that time survive.

The NSW state government permitted the Benevolent Society to acquire the property at a nominal rent, for a five-year tenancy (Sydney Morning Herald 27 September 1917). An article from 1918 states that “the welfare house is planned on the system of keeping the mother and her infants together” (Sydney Morning Herald, 11 May 1918). “Destitute mothers” whose babies were born at the Royal Hospital for Women’ were sent to Scarba, as were “a number of babies from the Renwick Hospital” (The Sun, 12 May 1918). The children at Scarba were aged up to 6 or 7 (Daily Telegraph, 7 November 1919).

A newspaper article published when Scarba opened describes the institution, and provides some insights into how the Benevolent Society and broader public saw Scarba House in the post World War I period:

“Scarba” is the name of the house, which overlooks Bondi Beach, and commands extensive views of harbour and ocean. In its extensive grounds, children are already playing. Within its large, airy, sun-let rooms, seventeen women and thirty-five children are being cared for by the Society under the capable and efficient matronship of Nurse Oldham.

Adult inmates do the domestic work of the home, and attend to their own children under the supervision of the matron and a trained nurse.

No destitute mother is refused admittance. Her plight is a passport. No questions are asked, and she is allowed to remain at “Scarba” until things have righted themselves, or she is well enough to apply for employment outside …

At a time like this, when we mourn the wastage of life through the war, the child is more than ever the nation’s asset. Every means used, such as the establishment of a Welfare Home as the “Scarba” type, for the restoration of the health of the mother, and the preservation of the life of the child, should receive the undivided support of the whole community (Sydney Stock and Station Journal, 12 October 1917).