Tanderra Girls' Home

Tanderra Girls’ Home was opened by the South Australian Council of the United Aborigines Mission at Parkside in 1952. It was established as accommodation for older Aboriginal girls who had left Colebrook Home. It accommodated up to ten girls. In later years Tanderra moved to Torrensville. The Home closed in 1973.

Tanderra Girls Home was opened in 1952 by United Aborigines Mission (UAM) Sisters Ruby Hyde and Delia Rutter who had been matrons at Colebrook Home both in Quorn and Eden Hills.

The Home was established because many older Aboriginal girls who had left Colebrook Home and entered employment, turned to the two sisters for assistance with housing and other matters. A number stayed with the sisters in their own home. Realising the need for a hostel for such girls, the two sisters arranged for the purchase of a building at Parkside.

Prior to the establishment of Tanderra Girls’ Home, Sisters Hyde and Rutter, along with other UAM missionaries, had split from the Victorian based Federal body of the UAM. This split led the Sister’s to leave Colebrook Home and establish Tanderra. Tanderra was maintained by the legally separate South Australian Council of the UAM.

While living at the Home, girls went out to work or went to local schools. They attended church on Sundays and joined local sporting clubs. One girl who lived in the Home said:

If I am asked to discuss my stay at Tanderra, which turned out to be nearly three years, I would have to say I felt very much protected, sheltered and given a wonderful opportunity to learn more.

Sisters Hyde and Rutter ran Tanderra until 1963 when Mr Noel and Mrs Iris Wiley, who had been missionaries at the Oodnadatta Children’s Home in the 1950s, took over for 18 months. After the Wileys left, the home was run by Mr and Mrs Gronow until its closure. In its last years Tanderra was moved to a new location in Torrensville. When the Home closed in 1973, the remaining girls moved to a hostel in Norwood.

National Redress Scheme for people who have experienced institutional child sexual abuse

In 2021, the South Australian government has agreed to be a funder of last resort for this institution. This means that although the institution is now defunct, it is participating in the National Redress Scheme, and the government has agreed to pay the institution’s share of costs of providing redress to a person (as long as the government is found to be equally responsible for the abuse a person experienced).